


Wartale: The Second War Between Humans and Monsters

by Reyna_is_epic



Series: Things I regret writing [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, I love chara, I'm Sorry, Idk what i'm doing, Multi, My First Undertale Fanfic, Nonbinary Frisk, Other, Pain, WarTale, chara, nonbinary chara, sue me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-18
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-06-09 03:42:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 20
Words: 48,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6888532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reyna_is_epic/pseuds/Reyna_is_epic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chara couldn’t decide what was worse, the sound of bombs going off, or the sound of a thousand guns going off all at once. Either way the noise rattled them to the core. They peeked up from their hole, gripping their rifle like it was a life line. Bombs blew, guns fired, the ground was trembling beneath their feet and the air was raining dust. Chara shivered, dust. Why did there have to be so much dust?</p><p>Original concept by Hawker-Rawr on Tumblr. Please go check them out because they are amazing for coming up with this idea and have so many amazing things and comics surrounding it.-M</p><p>http://hawker-rawr.tumblr.com/</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HawkerR](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HawkerR/gifts).



> Originally created by Hawker-Rawr on Tumblr. Please go check them out because they are amazing for coming up with this idea and have so many amazing things and comics surrounding it.-M
> 
> http://hawker-rawr.tumblr.com/
> 
> Hey, if you like what you see, check out this amazing audio dub of the first chapter by The True Child. It's fantastic and I still can't believe how professional it sounds. Please check it out if you like what you see.
> 
> https://soundcloud.com/the-true-child/wartale-the-second-war-between-humans-and-monsters-chapter-1-fading-sun

Chara couldn't decide what was worse, the sound of bombs going off, or the sound of a thousand guns going off all at once. Either way the noise rattled them to the core. They peeked up from their hole, gripping their rifle like it was a life line. Bombs blew, guns fired, the ground was trembling beneath their feet and the air was raining dust. Chara shivered, dust. Why did there have to be so much dust. The sky crashed, Chara gritted their teeth and clawed at the mound of dirt they hid behind. The blood pounding in their ears was nearly as loud as the gunfire. Above them, planes whisked through the sky, just as loud as the gunfire on the ground.

"Fall back!" they heard a familiar voice shout above the gun fire. All around them, their fellow combatants ran for cover, but Chara still stood there, holding onto the gun tighter. Peeking over the mound of dirt they were beginning to call home, they fired off a couple rounds. They fell like dominoes. Chara decided that killing humans was much more satisfying than killing monsters. With humans they left behind carnage, like a warning sign to other Humans, with monsters it was harder to tell if it was monster dust, or gun powder.

"Dreemur! Did you not hear me?! I said fall back!" the voice shouted again, but Chara ignored it. Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen. The numbers got higher as more of their bullets found their marks.

"Dreemur!" the voice screamed, but it was too late. A grenade fell beside Chara's boots, and before they could say "Fuck," it exploded.

Chara doubted they had ever felt such pain, their entire left side felt like it was on fire, and the battle sounded like it was under water. Why? Why was this stupid war even happening? Where had it all gone wrong? Well, Chara couldn't answer that question, they weren't alive roughly two-thousand years ago, but they did know why the second war had begun, and it still made their chest hurt.

 

Two years ago

 

"Chara, why did you climb the mountain?" Asriel asked from his spot, perching on one of the Ruins' pillars. Chara stared numbly at a wall opposite them. The little sunlight that made it down to this section of the ruins was illuminating the two siblings, as different as they were. Asriel was some sort of humanoid goat creature, with fur as white as snow, and eyes the color of oak. He had soft features, and a natural, friendly smile. Chara, on the other hand, was human, with messy chestnut hair that only made it down to their shoulders, the ends uneven and ragged. Their eyes weren't quite as human as the rest of the child. They glowed an unearthly shade of crimson, like sunlight through blood. Chara's skin was naturally pale, except for their face, which was flushed in an eternal blush, as if someone had just said something embarrassing to the child. Sharp features, and a smile that stretched too wide across their face, sometimes frightened away children. Despite the physical difference, someone watching would've known they were siblings. Matching sweaters of green and yellow, along with a certain aura of kinship that surrounded the pair.

"Why does anyone jump into strange holes that show no bottom or way back up?" Chara questioned and Asriel just gave them a confused look. Sighing, the older child answered their own question, "To disappear Azzy." The air hung quiet for a few moments.

"But, why?" Asriel asked again, and Chara sighed.

"The humans up there, they're not kind. They hated me, Asriel. That's all that humans know how to do, is to hate. They hated the monsters, and once the monsters were gone and they didn't have them to blame anymore, they hated each other. Humans just destroy thoughtlessly, and then move onto their next victim, and that doesn't exclude anyone or anything." they told their younger brother. Asriel stared thoughtfully at the hole in the ceiling that allowed sunlight to flow down to the earth.

"I don't think all humans are that bad," he muttered and turned to look at Chara, "I mean, you're not like that, so there has to be some good humans, right?" he smiled. Chara laughed quietly, finding their brother's train of thought ridiculous. Could he not see that Chara was the worst of all? Then again, he was a few years younger, perhaps humouring him would be a good idea?

"Maybe you're right Asriel, but that doesn't change the fact that the ones I knew were evil, and would rather see me dead then see me at all." Chara mumbled, suddenly standing.

"Chara-" Asriel began, but Chara held up their hands.'

"Shhhh!" they hissed. There it was again, the ceiling shook, rocks and soil tumbling loose from the cavern. Chara stared at the blank white canvas that prevented them from seeing the sky, but still let sunlight in, and watched as cracks began to form in it. The barrier burst into nothingness, and gunfire exploded into the clearing the siblings stood.

"Run!" Chara yelled, grabbing Asriel and shoving him down the tunnels that led to Home, ignoring the bullets that tore into their back as they ran.

 

Chara's eyes snapped open, they didn't even remember falling asleep, but now found themselves somewhere completely unrecognizable. They appeared to be in a tent made of plain white cloth, which was weird because the Monster's tent's were all regulation Purple. The tent was complete darkness except for the lantern burning on a table next to the cot that Chara lay on, again, that was weird since Monsters didn't have lanterns, they much preferred fire magic. Chara tried to blink away the blurriness of their vision, and more of their situation came into focus.

Their left arm was in a sling, and their legs were both wrapped tightly in bandages. They had a suspicion that there were bandages on their head too, but there was no way for them to be sure. Another thing that worried Chara, bandages. Monsters did not bandage wounds, they instead healed them with healing magic in mere minutes, but here they lay, wrapped up like they'd just had a visit from Muffett. Also, the silence. In the monster camp it was never silent, someone, something was always moving, talking, laughing. Even on the darkest of nights, someone was having a party, Chara admired the Monster's ability to keep up hope. However, here it was dead silent except for the ringing in Chara's ears. Suddenly they heard shifting from the front of the tent and nearly had a heart attack when they saw who entered. Not who, what entered. A human.


	2. Chapter 2

Frisk had seen their share of weird things. A skeleton flying an airplane, a frog with eyes on it’s stomach, A man who had his hands surgically attached to his eyebrows, but this had to be one of the weirdest. A human who wore the crest of the Monster’s army, and had glowing red eyes. Admittedly that second one wasn’t really that weird, but more on that later. Frisk stared down at the soldier they had pulled from the wreckage of the battlefield. All around them other medics were looking over the wounded, but none of the other humans had the delta rune on their clothes. None of them looked like they’d sat on a landmine either, but Frisk was working on that. Carefully, they carried the unconscious soldier back to their tent and finished pulling shrapnel out of the soldier’s legs. 

Two more things they noticed, the soldier couldn’t have been any older than 16, and appeared to be a highly decorated officer, but none of the medals on the soldier’s coat were recognizable to Frisk. The soldier groaned and rolled over, exposing their arm which appeared badly broken. Frisk quickly set the bones and bandaged the wound, another curious thing, the human’s skin was pale, like they hadn’t seen sunlight in a long time. Frisk frowned, who was this teen?

“Frisk!” a voice called and Frisk carefully made their way out of the tent, towards the voice. A man with broad shoulders and a gun thrown over his back stood there.

“Yes, sir?” the medic asked, their short hair falling into their already closed eyes, old habits die hard. You keep your eyes closed as a kid to avoid teasing, you get so used to it that you no longer need them open to know where everything is. At least, that was Frisk’s experience. 

“The other medics are heading north after the army, are you continuing with the others?” he asked and Frisk shook their head.

“I’ve got a soldier here in critical condition, I need to stay and look after them,” they lied, in truth, they were just curious about this unknown soldier, and wanted to know why they wore the emblem of the Monster’s Royal family.

“Understood,” the man said and moved onto the next medic tent, Frisk crept back into their own, only to come face to face with the soldier they had found, now awake. Their eyes glowed in the darkness of the tent, a bright, unearthly red that reminded Frisk of fire. They blinked and stared at the soldier, as the soldier stared back, then opened their mouth.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAA-” the soldier let out a scream and Frisk launched themselves forward on instinct, clamping a hand over their mouth and muffling the scream. The soldier thrashed in their grip, trying desperately to get free, but Frisk held on. After a few minutes of wrestling the soldier gave up, perhaps out of exasperation, or maybe because of the fact they still had a broken arm and head wound. Either way, they calmed and Frisk carefully let the soldier go.

“Okay, I understand that probably wasn’t the best start,” Frisk mumbled quietly and brushed themselves off, and started looking over the soldier’s bandages to make sure they hadn’t reopened a wound.

“Who the hell are you?!” the soldier exclaimed, pulling themselves away from Frisk, who blinked in response.

“Sorry, Frisk, medic assigned to faucet five, league twelve.” they said and looked up at their mystery soldier who had suddenly gotten a shade paler.

“Did you just say faucet five, league twelve?” they asked and Frisk nodded. They sucked in a breath.

“I gotta get out of here, now.” they tried to stand and Frisk caught them as their legs gave out.

“Not so fast, you’re too badly injured to go anywhere, and you’re bleeding is only going to get worse if you keep moving around so fast,” Frisk said and set the soldier down on the bed, now having a pretty good Idea of who, or rather what, they had in their tent. The soldier was holding their side in pain.

“Ow..” they groaned and Frisk huffed in exasperation.

“I warned you,” Frisk whispered and the soldier just groaned again. “So what’s your name, mystery soldier?” they asked as they began to undo the bandages around the wound.

“Why do you want to know?” the soldier huffed, glaring at Frisk with eyes that practically oozed hostility, but Frisk just chose to ignore it.

“Because I’d like to know the name of the super hot person I’m currently bandaging who appears to actually have a conscience unlike the other people I live with,” they muttered nonchalantly and pretended not to notice when the soldier’s cheeks lit up.

“My name is Chara, and what was that about having a conscience?” they asked and Frisk started to clean the wound that had began bleeding again.

“Your uniform, that’s not the uniform of a Human soldier, it’s the uniform of a monster soldier. You’re wearing the crest of the Monster’s royal family, and as soon as you saw me you screamed like I was something from your worst nightmare. All signs pointing to, you aren’t on the human’s side. You’re on the Monster’s.” Frisk answered and started to bind Chara’s wound again. The teen blinked, confusion in their eyes.

“You got all that from me screaming and wearing a different uniform? For all you know I could’ve been a spy,” they protested, but Frisk shook their head.

“A spy wouldn’t have skin as pale as yours, which leads to you living underground for a certain amount of years,” Frisk finished the bandages and sat back on their ankles, keeping eye contact with the strange soldier. 

“Okay, fine you got me, I’m on the monster’s side, and you’re not going to kill me?” Chara asked in utter confusion. They looked almost disappointed, like they’d been looking forward to the awful things that humans did to monsters they captured. Frisk shuddered just thinking about it.

“Me? No. Now, if someone else had found you, probably, but I’m not really that kind of person. Honestly I think this whole ‘war with the monsters’ thing is bonkers.” they answered and they were just met with blank red eyes.

“Then why are you fighting it?” they asked and Frisk snorted.

“Getting straight into the personal questions are we?” they teased before letting their face fall into it’s natural emotionless stare, “I didn’t want to, but then I got drafted. When you’re drafted you have no other choice, but to fight, lest you pay the consequences. Luckily for me, I managed to join the medical force so I don’t have to actually fight anyone, but it’s still not right…” Frisk trailed off. Screams echoed in their head, they remembered how many battle fields they had marched across, and how many times they had heard the screaming of monsters who had done nothing wrong, as they marched to their deaths. Frisk’s eyes, already closed, clenched. Thinking about it only made the sounds worse. 

“That’s stupid,” Chara muttered facing the wall.

“Well I didn’t make the laws,” Frisk responded and the other teen sighed.

“Humans are stupid,” they mumbled and Frisk rose an eyebrow.

“Careful, because if my knowledge of human and monster anatomy is correct you’re a human too,” they scolded, but Chara just bowed their head.

“Exactly,” they responded and Frisk frowned. That response sounded too much like something they would’ve said before the war. Before they stopped looking at themselves for criticism and just accepted the fact that they weren’t ever going to be perfect. That scared Frisk for some reason.

“Awe come on, you aren’t stupid,” Frisk said and shoved the teen lightly, but was only met with empty red eyes.

“You don’t know who I am or what I’ve done. I’m just as bad as every human, if not worse,” they said in a voice devoid of emotion. Frisk felt like they were arguing with a younger version of themself, despite the fact that Chara was probably older than them. Frisk grit their teeth.

“I know you have to be a good person in order to care about the monsters enough to fight an die for them. No one, no human would put on that uniform and fight for the monsters of their own free will. None,” Frisk argued and Chara knit their eyebrows.

“Why are you playing guidance counselor? I’m just some stupid soldier you found who is for the other team! Shouldn’t you be, I don’t know, trying to kill me?!” Frisk sighed and shook their head.

“I don’t know what your experiences with humans are, but we aren’t all bloodthirsty killers. Some of us just want to go home, but then remember they remember they don’t have a home,” Frisk answered and pulled out their bag.

Chara looked confused, as if they had been expecting a pond, only to find the whole ocean. They were staring at frisk as if they were some strange creature from another planet. Finally they muttered, “You sound like Asriel,”

“Who’s Asriel?” Frisk asked and Chara clammed up, turning to face the wall, but not even attempting to get up, too weak perhaps. Frisk sighed.

“Really? The cold shoulder, how old are you, five?” they asked, but Chara did not respond. Frisk rolled their eyes behind their eyelids and rummaged around in their bag. “Okay look, normally I only give this out if we have an extremely traumatized patient, but you look like you’re going to throttle me, so let’s take this as a peace offering, shall we?” Frisk produced a chocolate bar from their bag and held it out to Chara. Chara stared at the candy for about five seconds before snatching it out of Frisk’s hands and hugging it close as if it were some kind of baby.

“Where did you get this?” they asked, and just like that the hard exterior was gone, replaced with some kind of childlike excitement and a look like they held all of the stars in their eyes. Frisk had to swallow a tinge of guilt, that look reminded them too much of an old friend of theirs.

“Bought it a couple towns back. I have more if you-” Chara’s face split into a giant childlike grin that made Frisk’s heart melt. Oh god what was this kid doing to them?! They’d barely known them for twenty minutes and already they felt like they would give the world to see them smile like that again.

“Please!” The teen begged. Begged? What the heck?! Just a few minutes ago the kid looked like they wanted to stab them, now they were equivalent to an over excited five-year-old. 

“Okay, fine you can have more, but only if you promise to tell me more about how you ended up with the Monsters,” Frisk bribed and Chara considered for a moment.

“Fine, now give me chocolate!”


	3. Chapter 3

Chara hadn’t tasted chocolate since they’d fallen into the underground about 7 years ago. Sure, monsters had their own version of chocolate, but if there was one thing the humans did right, it was chocolate. Chara couldn’t believe this human, as strange as they already appeared to be, would willingly give out chocolate. And this human was really strange, for a number of reasons really, giving out free chocolate not even scratching the surface. First off, they looked remarkably similar to themselves, except a darker skin tone and being shorter. A lot shorter. Part of Chara wondered if the medic was any older than ten. The fact that they kept their eyes closed the entire conversation, but appeared to be able to see them was just plain creepy. To top it all off, they appeared to be sympathetic to the monster cause and didn’t seem to mind Chara’s red eyes, which (back when they were living with humans) had always just been an excuse for other children and adults to call them a demon.

Chara took a bite of the chocolate bar, savoring the flavor. Chocolate was definitely a sign that there was some kind of higher power. The other human, Frisk, watched, er, faced her. Keeping their eyes closed all the time was seriously starting to freak Chara out. Come on, who does that?

“So, we could begin by how exactly you got into the monster’s domain, because as far as I know there was a whole barrier thing surrounding them,” Frisk suggested and Chara sighed, swallowing a mouthful of chocolate.

“The barrier was made to keep the monsters in, not to keep humans out, but once you entered the barrier you couldn’t leave. It takes the power of seven human souls to break the barrier, honestly I’m not sure how you humans did it. You guys haven’t used soul magic in nearly two thousand years,” Chara explained, and Frisk frowned, knitting their brows.

“Soul magic?” they asked and Chara rolled their eyes.

“Not important, look the point is that getting into the underground wasn’t that hard, I just fell down a hole while I was hiking,” 

“You were hiking on Mount Ebbott?” Frisk questioned. Chara shrugged.

“Well, what can I say, I’m a risk taker, and It’s not like I was there alone,” lie “I was there with some friends on a dare. I just fell,” LIE. This was entirely a lie, but Chara wasn’t about to tell a complete stranger their life story and problems with their blood relatives. Frisk didn’t appear convinced, but didn’t press.

“Okay then, so what happened after you fell in?” they asked and Chara swallowed another mouthful of their chocolate bar.

“Well, I did what any 9 year old would do. I screamed for help and said plenty of words my mother would be proud of,” Chara muttered sarcastically, and a soft noise came from their companion. It took Chara a moment to realize it was a laugh, the noise was so pure and innocent that Chara resisted the urge to wrap their arms protectively around the other human. No creature they’d ever met, human, monster, or other, laughed with a noise so innocent and pure.

“Not what I meant,” Frisk muttered softly, and Chara noticed they were staring instead of replying.

“Yeah, yeah, well that’s when my brother found me. Not biological, obviously, but he found me after I fell and took me to his parents. They took me in and showed me more love and cared for me more than anyone I’d ever met.” Chara finished, but apparently Frisk was curious, and liked to push the soldier’s buttons.

“What were their names?” Frisk asked and Chara glared at them silently.

“None of your concern,” they hissed, and Frisk fixed them with their most patient smile, and Chara sighed. “My mom’s name is Toriel, my dad’s is Asgore, and my brother’s…” Chara paused for a moment, swallowing something that tasted foul on the back of their throat, “Asriel.”

“Asriel? You mentioned that name earlier. Said something about me reminding you of him,” Frisk continued. Chara wondered if the kid could feel the waves of hostility rolling off of them, or if they somehow were oblivious. What if they were doing this on purpose to get Chara riled up? Chara studied the child again. They had a halo of brown curls that was similar to their own, but looked softer and was a darker shade. Their face seemed softer and more kindly. The kid didn’t look like they were a spy, but Chara had learned a long time ago that looks could be deceiving.

“You and Asriel had the same nosy complex about budding into my business,” she grumbled, and the smile on Frisk’s face faded a bit. Some part of Chara immediately went into panic mode. They weren’t sure why, they barely knew this Human, and yet here they were trying to keep up a friendly conversation with them. “Also, you both were unnaturally kind to me for no apparent reason.” Frisk perked up a little at that.

“I’m not nice for no reason, I’m nice because I like it when other people are happy,” Frisk interjected and Chara chuckled drily.

“Good luck with that, Kid, I’m not a happy person,” Chara’s voice cracked with hidden emotion, Frisk didn’t seem to notice.

“Don’t call me kid, I’m nearly 16,” Frisk complained, and Chara laughed for real.

“Nearly 16? Oh my bad, you old lady, how dare I call you kid. I must always respect my elders,” they replied sarcastically. Frisk glared, or Chara imagined you could call it a glare, their eyes were closed so it was a bit harder to read their expression.

“Oh come on, you’re probably not much older,” they grumbled, and Chara nodded.

“You’re right, but at least I’m already 16. Seriously, I know why I’m in this war, but what are the humans doing drafting a 15 year-old?” they asked and Frisk stared at their shoes.

“Actually I was 14 when I was drafter,” they murmured quietly, and Chara burst into a roar of laughter.

“14? Wow, you guys must’ve been really desperate for soldiers!” They choked out after their laughter had died down. Frisk wasn’t laughing though, they looked… sad.

“Chara, there are children much younger than me forced to fight and die in this war just because they’re parents are bigoted and unaccepting of the Monsters,” they said seriously, and Chara felt a slight tinge of guilt, but the kid needed to understand one thing. 

“Look Frisk, there’s one thing you need to understand about me,” Chara began, and leaned their face uncomfortably close to the younger teen’s. They wanted the kid to feel their breath on their skin. “I don’t care about the humans as a species, you, as an individual have peeked my interest, but that does not change my opinion on the bunch. All humans are terrible, killing machines. Even the young ones.” Frisk didn’t even flinch.

“That includes you too, Chara.” Frisk reminded them, and Chara smiled in that unnaturally creepy way of theirs, lips stretching too far to be humanly possible, and eyes widening to the size of dinner plates.

“Now you’re getting it,” they hissed.


	4. Chapter 4

Frisk didn’t even flinch. Chara was doing the face they remembered could scare grown men into running for their lives, and yet this kid who was younger and smaller than Chara wasn’t even flinching.

“You have nice eyes,” Frisk responded innocently and Chara’s face melted back into its normal state, sputtering for words.

“Wh-What?!” they exclaimed and Frisk smirked, Chara suspected they were trying not to laugh.

“Did you think that would scare me?” they asked and Chara just stared at the younger human, complete disbelief in their eyes.

“Yes!” they yelled and the kid laughed for real. Again, the noise was so pure and innocent that Chara could almost imagine that they weren’t in the middle of a war.

“Honestly, it was just really funny, you looked like this,” Frisk widened their mouth and stuck their head out, screwing up their nose and making their eyebrows disappear into their bangs, looking utterly ridiculous.

“I did not!” Chara complained, “That face I just made used to make grown men run away from me in fear!”

“Probably in fear of getting barfed on,” the medic responded and stood. “I’m going to get you some food, please don’t try to lead the tent because either you’ll be killed because of your uniform, or you’ll collapse before you make it two feet.” With that, Frisk was gone, leaving Chara spluttering and staring at the entrance to the tent.

 

“I’m sorry my Queen, it was too late,” The guard said, bowing their head. Queen Toriel couldn’t believe it, just like that she had lost both of her children to a war. Ariel and Chara, both dead.

“Did you at least bring back the body?” Asgore asked, trying to mask the distress in his voice. Undyne, the captain of the Royal Guard, shook her head.

“There wasn’t enough time sir, we were retreating when they got caught by a grenade.” The soldier did a good job of trying to hide it, but Toriel could hear the trembling emotion in her voice. Undyne had spent years coming by the castle while they were still underground. Undyne was almost as much Chara’s family as Asriel, and when they had lost Asriel all those months ago Undyne had cried just as much as the rest of the family, although Toriel was sure she would deny that. Now Chara was gone too, and worst of all it had been on Undyne’s watch, as far as the soldier was concerned, it was her fault. Asgore bowed his head, as his queen left the room. That night, all the royal family would grieve for the loss of Chara Dreemur.

 

“What the hell is that!” Chara yelled, staring at the strange white froth Frisk had called ‘grits’

“I don’t understand what you’re complaining about, it’s just standard army rations,” Frisk said from their perch at the end of the bed, watching as Chara’s expression changed from confused to disgusted.

“Army rations?” they asked, “How the hell do you fight on a stomach full of this stuff?” Frisk huffed.

“If you’re surprised by this I’d like to see what you guys are eating on the other side,” they muttered and Chara glared.

“Well, for starters, actual food,” they grumbled. Frisk rolled their eyes. “Second, monster food is different than human food.”

“I can imagine, everything over here is freeze dried and salted and just plain disgusting. It’s either that or it spoils.” Frisk sighed.

“Well that sucks, monster food is made so that it feeds the soul, if you get used to monster food you don’t really have to eat for hunger anymore, just to keep your HP up,” Chara commented thoughtfully before downing the questionable ‘grits.’ Frisk frowned.

“HP?” they asked, “and what the heck does ‘feed the soul’ mean?” Chara laughed softly.

“I keep forgetting you humans haven’t had to deal with stuff like that for the last two thousand years. HP stands for HOPE which is how much strength you have left to battle. Monsters bodies are made off of their souls, so instead of having to eat to keep from going hungry they just have to eat to keep their HP up.That’s why when a skeleton eats the food doesn’t fall right through them.” Chara tried to explain, but more questions just began to swirl around Frisk’s mind.

Frisk knit their eyebrows, “You said something about that earlier, something like ‘soul magic’? You don’t actually mean magic, like wizards and Witches do you?” Frisk asked, but Chara didn’t appear to understand the disbelief in the child’s voice. They just nodded, like this should be obvious.

“Yes, I mean magic, it’s kind of hard to explain, but humans and monsters both have magic, humans have just forgotten about it. Monsters on the other hand continue to thrive with magic as their source.” Chara was examining the bandages around their left arm, as Frisk attempted to wrap their head around that.

Magic, was real apparently, and both humans and monsters had it, well that did solve some questions for Frisk. If monsters had magic, that could’ve been why humans sealed them underground in the first place, they were scared of the monsters’ power. Frisk shoved that aside, heal patient now, solve questions about the universe later.

“Okay, moving on, you should probably get some rest, because we’re going to have to sneak out of here soon and get you back to your camp,” frisk mumbled and reached into their bag for a blanket, Chara blinked.

“Wait What?!” they asked and sat up, wincing as they did so. Chara tried to ignore their swimming vision and the black spots dancing in front of their eyes. Frisk grabbed Chara by the shoulders and lay them back.

“I’m taking you back, you’re injured and not on this side of the war. I don’t want you to get caught, so I’m taking you back to your camp, wherever it is,” Frisk answered, but Chara shook their head.

“If you think I’m just going to tell some random human I just met where my base is, you’ve got the wrong idea!” they growled, trying to push Frisk away, but their attempts were weak from exhaustion. Frisk sighed.

“It doesn’t matter if you tell me or not, I already know where it is,” they whispered and Chara stopped struggling.

“You, What?!” Chara yelled and Frisk sighed.

“You aren’t the first person I’ve pulled from the wreckage of something that wasn’t on our side. I’ve found, healed, and returned about two dozen monsters to your camps by now. I don’t like seeing anyone hurt, especially people that are so kind and peaceful.” Frisk explained, and Chara just stared at them.

“You mean to tell me that you’ve been rescuing my kind all during this war, and that you haven’t told a single soul where the camp is?” they hissed and Frisk nodded.

“No one. I’m the only human who knows, and it’s going to remain that way,” Frisk’s face was firm, planted, determined. Chara knew that all humans had determination, but as far as they had figured having the main trait of Determination was exceptionally rare. If this kid had the same trait, that basically set in stone they were meant to meet.

“Why should I trust you, give me one good reason,” Chara demanded and Frisk smiled sadly.

“When I was born both of my parents died, my mom during childbirth, and my father of a broken heart. I spent my life moving from foster home, to foster home, and in every single one I met different people. Some were kind, but the majority were not. Sometimes I was happy, most of the time I was scared, lost, broken, and depressed. I’ve seen both sides of humanity and firmly believe that every person is like a coin. Both humans and monsters, you’ve just spent too long looking at the darkside. I will flip the coin until I get the lighter side, no one is inherently evil, not even you. Trust me, because I trust you.” Frisk said, Chara blinked. What kind of person was just so upfront about everything? What kind of person just spilled their entire lives in front of you without a second thought? This kid was either the bravest person they’d ever met, or the most stupid, and honestly, It’s really hard to not trust someone who would willingly admit that they had spent a portion of their life in depression. 

Chara sighed in defeat, “I trust you,” they whispered, and Frisk smiled. That smile alone could outshine the sun. They smiled weakly and Frisk placed a blanket over them, tucking Chara in like Toriel used to when they were young.

“Goodnight Chara,” Frisk said and sat down in a chair across the tent, pulling out a book from the floor. Chara felt their lips curling into a smile with their own will.

“Night ‘kid,” they muttered, and closed their eyes.


	5. Chapter 5

The room was dark, but Chara still knew whose it was. The stench of alcohol wafting through the doorway. No, please. Not here. Not here again. Unfortunately, that's not how the world works. There was the unmistakable sound of clumsy footsteps as the door burst open. Light filled the room, spilling over decaying carpet and half eaten blankets. It touched Chara’s skin, no longer milky pale from years underground, but black and blue from previous nights. Chara couldn’t believe it, they were back here. Back in this hell-hole.

“Demon child, what kind of kid sits in the dark, jus staring at the door!” a voice slurred and in stumbled a broom-stick of a woman. She was tall and skinny, covered in a loud blue and yellow dress with big green pearls. Her hair was wiry and stuck out in all directions, like it was attempting to escape from her head. She stumbled forward and grabbed Chara by the neck.

“The devil sent you to me to test my faith, did he not?!” she snarled in a voice dripping with venom, eyes as dark as the dead of night.

“I-I’m not a demon!” Chara choked out, voice trembling and dying in a way that was all too childish, but then again that’s all Chara was. A child. A child with growing red eyes, a child who was the spawn of satan himself. At least that’s what all the other humans said.

“Don’t lie to me child!” the woman roared and shook Chara, squeezing their neck tighter. Chara choked and clawed at their neck.

“Sh-Shut u-up!” they coughed out and wriggled as their vision swam with black dots.

“Demon!” the woman snarled and smashed Chara against the wall, “Demon!” the woman repeated and again they made contact with the wall. The process continued until the world went black.

______________________________________________________________________________

Chara sat bolt upright, sweat pouring from their brow. Heart racing a million miles an hour.

“C-Chara?” a voice whispered and the teen whipped around at the speed of sound, there stood Asriel, just as they remembered him. Soft white fur, big oaken eyes, gentle features, hole through his chest.

“Asriel!” Chara shouted and ran to him, but found their feet stuck to the ground, they looked down only to find themselves buried knee deep in a thick red liquid. Asriel stood a few feet away, already crumbling into the red froth.

“Wh-Why?” he asked as he crumbled, “Why did you let this happen?!” he shouted as his face began to crumble.

“Asriel!” Chara shouted and tried to launch themselves forward, fear pounding though them, but the red liquid held them, now up to their waist.

“Why did you let me die?!” he whispered as he was left nothing more than dust.

“No!” Chara shouted, too last did they realize they should’ve held their breath, the red liquid was rising, and it rose to bury Chara in it. Rose to drown Chara in their own blood.

______________________________________________________________________________

“Chara! Chara!” a voice whispered urgently in the soldier’s ear and they sat up at the speed of light, smacking their skull right into that of Frisk.

“Ow,” They muttered rubbing their forehead, “What the heck were you doing leaning over me like that?!” Chara barked and glared at the younger human. Frisk looked worried.

“You were crying in your sleep, a-and then you started screaming, a-and… and then you stopped breathing..” Frisk stuttered out, sounding just as shaken up as Chara felt, but they weren’t about to let some kid see past their armor. They huffed.

“I’m fine,” they growled and tried to stand, but their legs only shook and gave out again, Frisk was there in a flash, and setting them back down in the bed, like they were a small child. How this kid was strong enough to carry a teen who was so much taller than themselves puzzled Chara, or maybe they were just trying not to think about the nightmare. Asriel. Chara felt an involuntary tear slip down their cheek, and rushed to wipe it, praying Frisk hadn’t seen it.

“You most definitely are not fine,” Frisk muttered and placed a hand on their forehead.

“Hey!” Chara protested, but almost immediately froze when Frisk touched their forehead. Frisk’s hand was like ice, and it chilled Chara to the bone just from the short contact. Frisk’s eyebrows did their disappearing act into the child’s bangs.

“You’re burning up, must be an infection,” they muttered and ran out the tent flap, before Chara could even ask what the heck an infection was. Frisk came charging back in not a full minute later, holding a bucket and rag. They set the bucket down next to Chara’s cot and placed the rag on their head. It was so cold it stung against Chara’s skin. They hissed and batted the rag away, but Frisk just put it back.

“What the hell are you doing?! Trying to freeze me to death?!” Chara complained and Frisk shook their head.

“You have a fever, I’m trying to keep it from getting too high and causing brain damage,” they muttered and Chara just gave the medic a weird look.  
“Temperature can cause brain damage?” Chara asked and Frisk blinked.

“Yeah, if your head gets too hot it can cause brain cells to disintegrate,” they said, sounding as if they were confused.

“Oh, also, what the heck in an infection?” Chara asked and Frisk just stared at them for a solid thirty seconds.

“You know almost nothing about human anatomy, do you?” they asked and Chara shook their head.

“Not a clue.” they answered and Frisk chuckled lightly.

“Well, put simply an infection is when bad stuff gets in your wounds, it can make you very sick,” they explained, and Chara got the impression they were resisting the urge to burst out laughing, and they glared at the kid.

“Don’t act like I’m an idiot, it’s not my fault that I was raised by monsters who know even less about human anatomy than I do. I had to explain to them what the heck blood was, and they think it’s weird that humans have a red ‘life liquid’ that must be kept in them at all times,” Chara burst out, and Frisk couldn’t hold back their laughter anymore.

“Life liquid?” they choked out between laughs, and Chara glared.

“Yes, ‘life liquid’” they growled and Frisk swallowed another round of laughter.

“I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t laugh,” they whispered and wiped a tear from their eye, “I-It’s just.. How much do you know about human anatomy?” they asked and Chara’s face flushed, not just from the fever.

“Thrdgrdscnnnsecss” they mumbled and Frisk blinked.

“What?” they asked and Chara’s face turned a brighter shade of red.

“Third grade science class!” they burst and Frisk stared at them, er, faced them for a moment, appearing stunned.

“How old were you when you fell into the underground?” they asked and Chara huffed.

“Nine, did you think I was joking?” they mumbled, and maybe it was the fever making them feel dizzy, or maybe it was the look of sheer empathy, not pity, but understanding on Frisk’s face; Chara felt their guard slipping down.

“I thought you were exaggerating,” Frisk mumbled and placed a hand on Chara’s cheek, their hand still felt like ice on Chara’s skin, but they flinched less this time. 

“Your fever is getting worse, you should try and rest,” they advised, and the thought of more nightmares was enough to insure that Chara would be awake all night.

“No way, I am not having anymore of those nightmares,” they meant to whisper to themselves, but Frisk heard and frowned.

“Trust me, I get nightmares too, but you still have to sleep, or your fever will just get worse.” they tried to reassure, and Chara huffed.

“Your ‘nightmares’ are nothing like mine, that I can assure you,” they snarled in the medic’s face, but again was struck with the realization that Frisk didn’t even flinch.

“Are they? Tell me Chara, do you ever dream of the whole world chanting you are a demon? Do you dream of those who you need support from destroying you? Do you dream of tearing yourself apart from the inside out? Do you dream of ending it all for yourself?” they asked and Chara stared at the child. That sounded hauntingly similar to their dreams, so much so they felt themselves inching backward on the cot.

“How did you get all of that from me saying I had nightmares, and a little crying in my sleep?” they asked, and the Medic’s face darkened.

“I didn’t, that’s what I dream of,” they whispered and tucked Chara in. “Rest,”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chara and Frisk encounter a monster

Frisk watched as the sun slowly rose on the horizon, a sigh escaping their lips. They cast a glance backwards at Chara, who was sound asleep in their cot. Another person with nightmares as bad as their own? That really shouldn’t have surprised Frisk, not everyone had red eyes, but those who did knew the pain. The pain of everyone in the world assuming you are the spawn of Satan. Frisk knew that pain first hand, hence the reason they always kept their eyes closed, but Chara, chara seemed to have had it worse than Frisk. Frisk no longer woke up screaming in the middle of the night, Chara apparently did. That worried Frisk, because if Chara couldn’t be quiet for the next couple of minutes, then they’d both be caught, and both suffer the consequences. 

“Chara,” they whispered and gently shook the soldier awake. Chara groaned and pulled the covers over themselves, as if to ward Frisk off.

“Later,” they mumbled and Frisk inwardly rolled their eyes. They tugged the covers off and started to shake Chara again.

“Not Later, now!” they hissed and Chara groaned, hiding under the pillow.

“Leave me alone Asriel!” they complained sleepily and Frisk froze. That name again. Chara kept confusing Frisk for their adopted brother, and Frisk honestly didn’t know whether to be flattered or a little sad.

“Chara, if you don’t get up we’re going to be stuck here for another couple days,” Frisk growled and got the response of Chara throwing a pillow at their face. “Seriously?” was their muffled reply.

“Yes,” Chara mumbled and pulled the blanket back over their body and attempting to go back to sleep. Frisk sighed.

“Okay, I didn’t want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice,” Frisk muttered and leaned down, picking Chara up and throwing them over their shoulder in a fireman’s carry, the soldier’s forehead burned against Frisk’s back, still hot with fever. Another reason to get the kid back to the monster camp where they had better medical supplies, or something. 

“Hey! Put me down!” Chara complained and started to kick in Frisk’s hold, but the smaller human was stronger and shifted Chara into a bridal carry.

“Is this better?” Frisk asked, letting their eyelids slide closed, so that the other human (who was now awake) couldn’t see their eyes. Still, Frisk could feel Chara glaring at them.

“Put me down, I’m awake already!” Chara hissed, and Frisk laughed before carefully setting the soldier down. Chara brushed themselves off as if Frisk might’ve somehow infected them with their touch. Frisk did not take offense.

“Great, now let's get going,” Frisk said and pulled their bag over their shoulders.

 

“Are you positive you know where the camp is?!” Chara whined as they continued walking,  
Frisk rolled their eyes.

“Yes Chara, it’s about three days travel from where we were,” Frisk said paitiently, but Chara was not a patient person. 

“Three days?! I don’t think we’re thinking of the same camp,” Chara growled, ignoring the pain shooting up their legs with every step. Frisk had told them to tell them if they started to feel pain in their legs or felt like they were going to collapse, so of course Chara had not notified Frisk that it felt like they were walking on broken glass.

“Well, the camp I’m taking you has two skeletons in charge of it,” Frisk said and Chara instantly groaned.

“Of all the camps, that one?!” they wined and Frisk sighed.

“Well, if you’d like to tell me where the one you’re from is I’d gladly take you there,” Frisk suggested, and Chara finally went quiet. “Didn’t think so,” Frisk finished. 

They kept walking for what felt like eternity, and Chara kept ignoring the pain running up and down their spine, ignored the spots dancing in front of their vision, ignored the ringing in their ears until they felt like they were going to collapse.

“Jus-Just give me a minute,” Chara mumbled to Frisk before stumbling to a tree and leaning against it for support. Frisk dropped down next to them and wordlessly offered a bottle of water. Chara took it without thanks and gulped down the water greedily.

“We should rest here for a while, it’s been a hours,” Frisk suggested, and Chara resisted the urge to agree and lay down.

“I’m fine, let’s just keep going,” they growled and tried to stand, almost instantly their legs gave out, and Frisk was already there to catch them.

“You’re not fine, you’re injured and sick. I don’t care if it hurts your pride to admit this, but you need my help, so please accept it. If you keep pushing yourself like just now you’ll get yourself killed before we even reach your camp,” Frisk said quietly and Chara growled.

“I don’t need your help!” they growled, “I don’t want your help, I need to get home, and I can do that either with or without your help!” Frisk just shook their head and sighed.

“Chara-” they didn’t get to finish their sentence as the clearing exploded with vegetables. Frisk and Chara both went sprawling.

“What the heck?” Frisk yelled and sat up as Vegemite snarled from the other side of the clearing. Chara just lay there, pinned to the ground by a pile of carrots and broccoli. Yes, Chara was so injured that they couldn’t even dig their way out of a pile of healthy food. Great. Frisk on the other hand now stood facing what looked like a carrot with teeth. 

“Uh, hi Mister…” Frisk trailed off, not knowing what to say to a strange carrot monster. Mister carrot growled at them.

“Part of a delicious and healthy meal,” it hissed and Frisk watched in surprise and mild horror as their soul was pulled out of their body. Frisk wasn’t quite sure how they knew it was their soul, but they did, and it glowed bright red like it was on fire. The carrot paused momentarily, as if the soul surprised them too, but then started hurling vegetables at it. Frisk yelped as they made contact with the soul, and tried as best as they could to dodge, but felt pain racing through their body as soon as their turn was over. Vegemite stared at them, as if waiting for an attack, but Frisk just slowly stood up.

“H-Hey, er,” they began, but heard Chara’s voice from somewhere off to the side.

“It’s called a Vegemite!”

“Okay, uh Vegemite, I don’t mean to be rude, but I think this was all just a misunderstanding,” Frisk started, but vegemite just growled again and next thing Frisk knew more vegitables were being hurled at their soul. Suddenly the sound of glass shattering came and everything washed black.

 

Light slowly slid past Frisk’s eyelids and they sat up, to discover that they lay in the clearing again, apparently only moments before vegemite had attacked, and that Chara was staring at them like they had sprouted a third head.

“Did-did you just?” they spluttered out, but Frisk had both hands pressed over their chest and was breathing heavily.

“What the actual heck just happened?!” Frisk whispered and Chara just kept staring at them.

“You… reset…” Chara whispered and Frisk turned to face them.

“What the heck does that mean?” they asked and Chara just shook their head.

“I can’t believe it, this whole time I thought I was the only one who could do that, but no. You show up and bam, you can too. What the hell?!” Frisk just blinked the confusion out of their closed eyes.

“Chara, what does ‘reset’ mean?” they asked and Chara seemed to remember they were there.

“It means you died, and then rewound time so that you didn’t,” Frisk stared at them for a moment.

“What.”

“I’m serious, look, Vegemite will be here in like thr-” the clearing exploded with vegetables. It was exactly the same as last time, the same attack even, Frisk had time to dodge this time though, even though it was really strange that their very soul was floating outside of their body at this moment.

“Look, Vegemite, I don’t want to fight you!” Frisk said and the carrot looked surprised, so much so that it even forgot to attack. Frisk carefully approached the carrot, realising now that the monster just looked scared, and hurt. Not angry. “Please, just let me help you, you’re hurt,” they offered and the Carrot stared at them for a moment, as if considering. Frisk smiled patiently. Vegetables rained down on their soul. Shatter, wake up. It continued like that for another ten times, each time Frisk refused to fight, and instead offered assistance.

Chara couldn’t believe their own eyes, every single time, the human just wouldn’t hurt the monster, even when Chara urged if they didn’t they’d be stuck there fighting it forever. Frisk just shook their head, and told them they had promised that they would never hurt a single creature. Finally, around the twentieth reset, Vegemite accepted Frisk’s help. Frisk just smiled, like the stupid carrot had never killed them, and carefully bandaged the monster before releasing it. It left Frisk in peace, who was soaked through their clothes in sweat and so low on HP Chara was surprised they hadn’t reset already. Frisk huffed and fell down beside them, their soul settled back into their body.

“Uuuuuuuuuugggghhhhh…” Frisk groaned and Chara was silent. No human, not even themselves had ever been so.. So… kind. Even Chara lost their temper occasionally and killed a monster, but Frisk, no. If Chara had been the one fighting Vegemite they would’ve snapped around the fifth time and just killed the darn thing, but Frisk… Frisk was patient enough to try again. Kind enough not to hold a grudge. Just… so… different. Different enough to spare the creature. Chara couldn’t understand how.

“Chara,” Frisk groaned and Chara snapped out of their thoughts.

“What?” they asked, and were surprised themselves that they couldn’t hear bitterness in their voice

“Wh-What on earth did I just do?!” they whispered and Chara shrugged.

“Well, you died like twenty times all because you refused to kill a carrot.” Chara muttered and Frisk groaned.

“I meant, why did my soul, come out of my body?!” they asked and Chara sighed.

“That, is what I call soul magic. You, my friend, have a soul with the main trait of determination, meaning you reset time when you die, and try again. Your soul came out of your body because when Monsters fight one on one with a human they aim for your soul, which is the fastest way to kill you.” Chara explained and Frisk just groaned again.

“Is that why I feel like I was just thrown through a paper shredder?” they said, muffled by their arm.

“Yes,” Chara responded, and Frisk groaned again, louder this time. Chara sighed, and slowly stood, their legs wobbled under their weight, but didn’t give out this time.

“We might as well get some rest, you aren’t going anywhere for a while,” Chara muttered, ignoring the fact that they weren’t in any condition to travel either. Frisk slowly pulled themselves upright and Yanked their bag close. They handed Chara an energy bar and devoured the other. Apparently ‘devour’ was the right word, because right at that moment, a curtain of green vegetables came tumbling down on Frisk. Frisk yelped, probably expecting to die again, but instead their HP healed, but Chara was pretty sure Frisk didn’t know what that meant. What Frisk did know, was that they no longer felt like they were just seconds away from splitting apart. They caught a glimpse of the retreating Vegemite and called out a thank you.

Chara tried to ignore the feelings of admiration, or the sense that maybe this kid wasn’t so bad. So what, they didn’t want to hurt a monster, didn’t mean that they wouldn’t in the future. Still, something inside of Chara had changed in emotion toward the younger human? What was it? Respect? Maybe, but no, it felt deeper than that. Chara couldn’t name the emotion, but they knew it made their insides crawl whenever the Human smiled, or when they laughed. Especially when the smile or laugh was directed at them, whatever it was, Chara couldn’t dwell on it. In a few days Chara would be home, and they’d never have to speak to Frisk again. For some reason that made them feel sad.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chara and Frisk bonding stuff

Chara woke up to the soft sound of someone’s heartbeat. It was a soft sound, almost timid, but no, not timid. Soft, gentle, comforting yes, but timid? That was not the right word for the sound. It was the exact opposite of timid. Soft, but strong, even, constant beats. Unwavering and regular, two things that Chara’s life was severely lacking in. Chara blinked blearily, and subconsciously burrowed further into whatever this strange warm thing was they were sleeping on. The warm thing moved as well and wrapped an arm around them, it was almost comforting. Warm, calm, serene, and definitely something that Chara was not used to.

 

Chara shot backward, head spinning and cheeks aflame as they realized they had been curled into the strange human medic they had only started to befriend. Their cheeks only got hotter when they realized that they had been the one who had their arms around the younger human. Frisk apparently noticed that their human blanket was gone and was starting to wake up as well. Chara just sat there staring at Frisk and blushing like a tomato that had been left out in the sun for too long. Frisk blinked at them groggily, allowing them to glimpse their always closed eyes for a millisecond. Not long enough to decipher their color, unfortunately. 

 

“How long were we out?” Frisk mumbled and ran their fingers through their hair. Chara tried to chase down the heat in their cheeks and recollect their (nonexistent) dignity. 

 

“U-Uh..” they muttered intelligently and cast a glance at the now setting sun, and cursed. “Fuck, looks like a couple hours,” they stood, and were pleasantly surprised that their legs didn’t feel like gelatin. Frisk pulled themselves into a standing position, and pulled their bag over their shoulder.

 

“We should get moving, we want to get a couple more miles in before the sun sets,” they said, not seeming to have noticed that a few moments ago the two humans had been curled up on top of each other, not that Chara was complaining. If Frisk didn’t know, they certainly weren’t going to bring it up.

 

“Agreed,” Chara whispered and fell into step beside the shorter human. Frisk’s face remaining that slightly creepy neutral expression it always seemed to have. Not that they had been watching them, but they had noticed that their face scarcely changed at all, even facing the vegemite earlier, they had appeared almost emotionless, besides their voice. Chara was pretty sure if they imitated Frisk’s neutral expression the monster’s, who weren’t to being around humans, wouldn’t be able to tell them apart. Unfortunately Chara’s resting face was not quite as friendly. They didn’t exactly have a ‘resting bitch face’, but their resting face was a creepy, vacant smile that never quite reached their eyes, and stretched across their entire face. 

 

“Do you need me to check your injuries?” Frisk asked after a couple minutes of absent-minded silence. Chara blinked, being pulled out of their thoughts.

 

“Hmm?” they hummed and Frisk turned towards them.

 

“Your injuries, they aren’t bothering you too much are they?” they asked and Chara brushed off the urge to growl a retort at the younger human.

 

“I’m fine,” Chara muttered drily. Frisk frowned, not quite looking convinced, but they didn’t press. Chara was grateful for that. They lapsed into a more awkward silence, and Chara tried to distract themself with examining the way the shadows moved on the forest floor. They continued down the trail, autumn air blowing around them. Both humans pretended not to notice the traces of dust in the breeze, or the thick stench of gunpowder. Instead Chara focused on the sharp tang of pine in the air, and the strange scent of their human companion. A strange combination of cinnamon and firewood. They smelled like a campfire, not that Chara was intentionally sniffing them, but being on such a narrow trail with the other human did force them to get close enough to catch their smell. At least that’s what they told Frisk when they asked why they were (definitely not) sniffing them.

 

Frisk just downed it to some strange monster custom and kept walking. The setting sun cast golden rays through the thick tree coverage, turning Frisk’s skin golden and hair to a dark auburn. Chara pretended not to notice the light pink color their leg bandages were turning. The golden rays hid it anyway, no need to worry Frisk for no reason. Because clearly a little bleeding was no reason to worry, right? 

  
  
  


Finally the sun had gone down on the horizon and the only light was now the light of the sliver that was supposed to be the moon. Frisk stopped walking, and Chara had been so focused on making sure that they were putting one leg in front of the other that they didn’t notice until they had run directly into the shorter human. Just as Frisk was turning around to talk to them… great timing. 

 

Needless to say, this resulted in headbutting the shorter human in the face and Chara was aware of a dark liquid leaking from the other human’s nose as they both tumbled to the forest floor. Chara made a noise like a dying pterodactyl, and Frisk countered with one of an injured puppy. Chara found themself face to face with the shorter human, faces so close that their foreheads and noses were touching. Chara found both hands on either side of Frisk’s head and their body pinning the shorter human to the ground. Their injured leg was on one side of Frisk, while the other rested twisted around the other human’s right leg. Frisk, in an attempt to catch Chara as they fell, had grabbed their taller companion around the waist, and their hands were still there. Heat rushed to Chara’s face and they scrambled off the shorter human, making apologetic (and embarrassed) noises that never quite reached coherence. 

 

Frisk blinked at them, again too fast to actually glimpse their eyes. Frisk cleared their throat, as if to make sure it was still there, before speaking in a soft voice, “Well, I was going to say we should probably set up camp.” Chara was too embarrassed to argue.

 

Frisk flicked out a flashlight and set to work on bandaging their own nose, which was still leaking blood. While Chara attempted to set up a tent, and not have their face burst into flames at the same time. After getting completely tangled up in the canvas and being unable to move they turned to Frisk for help, only to discover the other human staring absentmindedly at the sky.

 

“You okay there, kid?” Chara called and tried to wriggle their arms out of their Chara-burrito. Whatever Frisk was thinking about had to be bad because they didn’t even correct them from calling them kid.

 

“Fine,” they muttered softly and turned toward them to make a comment and stared at the fact that Chara appeared to be stuck in a giant chinese hand-cuff. Chara smiled sheepishly and fell over, unable to get back up. Frisk blanched for a total of three seconds before bursting into laughter. Chara’s face heated back up and they wriggled helplessly in their personally made trap.

 

“Shut up and help me!” Chara yelled and Frisk just continued to laugh. Their laugh reminded Chara of the snow in Snowdin. Light, and full of air, their laugh was like snow falling. Not that Chara was paying attention to that. No, definitely not. Frisk finally managed to crawl over to Chara and help disentangle them from what should’ve been the tent, but they were still laughing. The taller human tried not to let their face explode into flames, again.

 

“Ho-How did you even manage to get yourself tangled up like this?” Frisk choked out between laughs and Chara glared at the younger human.

 

“It’s not my fault that you humans have strange tents!” chara complained and Frisk rose an eyebrow.

 

“How are our tents weird?” they asked curiously and chara crossed their are, looking a little too much like a small child throwing a tantrum.

 

“Y’know! You have like fifty different parts and you just, you have to figure out what goes where, and it takes like half an hour and just… you know!” Chara grumbled and Frisk offered an amused smile.

 

“I’m guessing monster tents are different?” they suggested and Chara sighed.

 

“Yes, they are actually. Monster tents set themselves up,” they muttered, and Frisk now looked interested.

 

“How?” they asked and Chara blinked, not finding that a particularly interesting subject.

 

“I don’t know exactly how, but Asriel used to say it had something to do with magnetics and magic,” Chara offered and shrugged, but Frisk had stopped listening and was now looking at Chara’s blood soaked bandages. Frisk pursed their lips. 

“Chara, why didn’t you tell me your leg was bleeding again?” they asked and for the first time, Chara actually felt slightly guilty. There was no anger or annoyance in Frisk’s voice at the question. Only concern and a little bit of hurt. For some reason that hurt ten times more than anger would’ve. If Frisk had been angry, or annoyed, Chara could’ve just brushed them off, but not concern. No, that was too much like Toriel.

 

“I just… I didn’t think it was that bad,” they muttered, which was partially the truth. Frisk sighed and started to peel off the bandages. Chara winced as the wound was exposed to air, Frisk made a noise of surprise and Chara looked over the medic’s shoulder to see that the wound hadn’t just reopened, it looked newly infected as well. Chara winced at the deep, bloody, pus filled marks. Frisk muttered something under their breath and reached for their bag. Chara swallowed down their pride for a couple seconds.

 

“I… I’m sorry,” those words felt like acid on the back of Chara’s tongue, but they still forced them out.  Frisk glanced up at them.

 

“Why?” they questioned, and before Chara could choke out a response, continued, “It’s my fault for not checking your wounds the last time we stopped.”

 

Normally Chara would’ve agreed and left it at that, but again the younger human sounded too much like Asriel.  “No, I should’ve told you when I noticed I was bleeding,” they muttered, sure their voice was getting smaller.

 

“Chara,” Frisk interjected and rubbed an alcohol cloth over the wounds. Chara grunted painfully. “Don’t force yourself to look guilty, humility doesn’t suit you.” Their voice held a tint of amusement and Chara just stared at the strange human. 

 

“How did you-” they started, but were cut off as Frisk pressed the alcohol soaked cloth on one of the scratches to try and clean it out. They yelped like an injured dog and fell backward, nearly kicking frisk in a reflex.

 

Frisk caught their leg and calmly pushed it back down, Chara groaned painfully as Frisk finished cleaning out the wounds. “I’m good at reading people, and I could tell from the strain in your voice that you’re not usually a person to apologize,” they explained quietly and placed a towel over the wounds, and pressing down. Chara muttered quiet curses under their breath. 

 

“You-You’re too smart for your own good,” Chara muttered, now facing the sky from their position. Frisk let out a short laugh.

 

“I’ll take that at a compliment,” they supplied and finished bandaging Chara’s leg. Frisk took one look at the tangled canvas that was supposed to be a tent, then the sky and shook their head. 

 

“Nevermind the tent, it’s not going to rain tonight,” Frisk muttered and started to gather sticks for a fire. Chara tried to stand and help, hating to feel useless, but as soon as they stood they were hit with a wave of dizziness that forced them back down.

 

“Probably not a good Idea for you to get up!” Frisk called back and Chara groaned in response. 

 

Ten minutes later they had a respectable camp fire and Frisk was roasting marshmallows like a little kid, looking quite pleased with themselves. Chara sat a few feet away, shivering. Sure, the heat of the fire was helpful, but did little against the fall night air. Chara pulled their knees to their chest and tried to ward off the fall chill. Something warm was draped over their shoulders and they cast a glance over to Frisk who was settling back into their spot, now in only a long sleeved t-shirt. Chara pulled the jacket around them, surprised at how much heavier the fabric was than the monster uniform.

 

“Thanks,” Chara managed to mumble, their voice barely coherent, but Frisk still understood and sent them a happy smile.

 

“You’re welcome,” they said and offered them the marshmallow on the end of their stick. Chara felt a smile pulling at the corners of their mouth. 

 

“Where did you even get these?” they questioned and took the candy. Frisk shrugged.

 

“They tell you to always be prepared,” They said and put a new marshmallow of the end of their stick. Chara chuckled quietly.

 

“Only you would think that includes marshmallows,” Chara muttered and the younger human shrugged.

 

“Why can’t it, I’m only a little disappointed I didn’t pack graham crackers, then we could have s’mores,” Frisk muttered and fished around in their bag. Chara rose an eyebrow.

 

“Have what now?” they asked and Frisk glanced at them, actually appearing surprised.

 

“You’ve never had s’mores before?” they asked and Chara shifted nervously, shaking their head. Frisk shook their head. “You poor uncultured child,” They said, feigning shock. Chara rolled their eyes.

 

“Yeah, whatever,” Chara muttered and tugged the coat tighter around them, trying to ward off painful memories. Frisk smiled.

 

“Moving on, S’mores are graham crackers with a roasted marshmallow and chocolate between them,” Frisk explained and handed Chara a chocolate bar, if chara weren’t so tired they probably would’ve devoured the candy in seconds. As it was, they still managed to eat the whole thing within five seconds. Frisk shook their head exasperatedly.

 

“So, what’re you going to do after all this?” Chara asked and Frisk shrugged. 

 

“Go back to doing my job I guess. Healing people, saving lives, it’s all in the trade,” Chara detected a hint of a guarded tone in Frisk’s voice, which just wasn’t something Chara thought they’d ever hear from them. Frisk seemed so open about everything, the thought that the younger human might be hiding  _ something _ hurt slightly. 

 

“Well, I guessed that, but I meant like.. After the war?” they asked and Frisk sighed.

 

“Depends,” they murmured and looked at the orange flames. “If the monsters win, I’ll try to help sort out peace between the two species, if the humans win…” they trailed off. Chara sighed, knowing what they meant. If the monsters won, they wouldn’t have the guts to do anything to the human race, and would probably try to end it with a treaty. The humans on the other hand… if the humans won they would kill every last monster. “If the humans win I guess it isn’t too late to move to Antarctica.” Frisk finished.

 

Chara stared at the younger human. “Move to Antarctica?” They asked and Frisk shrugged.

 

“If the humans win I’ve got no reason to hang around anymore. I don’t really get along with other people that easily. Honestly, the only reason you haven’t already killed me for being annoying is because you were raised by a much more tolerant species,” Frisk said nonchalantly and put a new marshmallow on their stick. Chara just stared at them.

 

“Uh… no… I haven’t killed you because you saved my life. Also, you aren’t annoying,” Chara argued and Frisk smiled.

 

“Chara, I appreciate your honesty, but I assure you, I am quite annoying.” Frisk mumbled and Chara frowned.

 

“No you aren’t, in fact you’re the opposite. Trust me, I’ve met plenty of ‘annoying’ monsters and you don’t come even close.” Chara assured, but Frisk only sighed.

 

“You can keep telling me that, it’s not going to change anything,” Frisk muttered, and changed the subject. “How about you? What’re you going to do after the war?” Chara sighed.

 

“Again, depends. If the monsters win, I guess everything will go back to normal for me, except we’ll be on the surface now, which is great. If the humans win, well I’m now going down without a fight, so… I’ll probably be dead.” Frisk visibly winced at the comment, and Chara rolled their eyes. “Ah come on Frisk, you know by now that I am not a passive person.”

 

“I know, but that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t want you to die! I don’t want anyone to die! This whole war is stupid in the first place! I’m pretty sure most people don’t even know why we’re fighting it! I certainly don’t!” Chara had never once heard Frisk yell the entire time they’d been stuck together, or even thought they  _ would _ hear Frisk yell. Frisk was such a calm, quiet person it just didn’t seem like they would yell. Now, they did and it was terrifying. Waves of pure frustration, and anguish rolling off the shorter human. The scowl on their face, the sudden rise of Frisk’s voice made Chara’s heart stop and they nearly fell into the fire in surprise. Frisk seemed to get a restraint on themselves and took a deep, calming breath.

 

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled,” their voice was so much quieter, calmer. Almost indistinguishable from the one they had used just moments before. Chara tugged at the Jacket around their shoulders. Frisk sighed. “It’s just stupid that they draft children into a battle that they don’t even know what they’re fighting for. I still don’t know. The monsters didn’t do anything wrong.” 

 

Chara swallowed. “I don’t know how the war two thousand years ago started, but I assume if I asked dad he’d know. This last war however, is for a much stupider reason,” they whispered. Frisk looked over at them.

 

“What happened?” They asked quietly. Chara clenched their fists in order to keep their hands from shaking.

 

“A human ruler over a small country had a child. No one knew much about the kid other than they had red eyes. One day the kid disappeared, and the humans claimed that the monsters in the nearby mountain must’ve taken them. So they broke open the mountain and found that indeed the child was with the monsters, so they declared War on the monsters. The monsters would not allow the humans to kill them off easily, so they fought back and killed a few humans. Next thing they knew the whole world was in a constant struggle between monsters, humans, and monster supporters. All because of one human child who was scared. A stupid human child who just wanted to get away from a family who did not love them. A little kid who heard of a mountain that made people disappear. A stupid, idiotic kid, who climbed that mountain, hoping not just to disappear from the world, but to disappear from themselves too.” Chara bit their tounge to keep themself from telling Frisk more, but that was already enough. Frisk understood, Chara could see that in the younger kid’s expression.

 

“Chara… I-” Frisk started.

 

“Don’t.” Chara growled and looked down. “Don’t say you’re sorry. Don’t say that it wasn’t my fault, because it was. I just wanted to get away from that stupid fucking lady I crawled out of, and I found people who cared. People who loved and accepted me for what I was. And I bought them to war!” Chara pulled the Jacket over their head. They felt gentle hands pull the jacket away from their face, and Frisk smiled at them patiently.

 

“I wasn’t going to say any of that. I was going to say I understand.” Frisk whispered and Chara tried to see through the tears forming at the edges of their vision. Frisk cupped their face and smiled sadly, opening their eyes to let them see them for the first time since they met. If they hadn’t already looked extremely similar, now they definitely did. Red eyes stared at her, and Chara almost forgot how to breath. Frisk’s eyes were exactly like hers, except a shade darker, but red all the same.

 

“I ran away from my family when I was 7 and lived on the streets since. Occasionally I got help, but humans often see those less fortunate than themselves as lazy, or stupid. I don’t hold that against them, but I can understand why you would’ve run away. It was your fault for the war, but you had no idea that would happen when you ran away. You were what, nine?” Chara nodded, Frisk laughed quietly. “See? No nine year-old would know that running away from people that hated them would cause such a thing. Besides, I think humans were just looking for an excuse to fight the monsters anyway. Humans seem to have a love of blowing each other up. Half of our history is wars.” 

 

For some reason that made Chara feel better, but they were a bit preoccupied with staring at Frisk’s eyes. In the firelight, they were almost dancing, reflecting the fire. Chara suddenly realized how close the two were and burrowed into the jacket.

 

“Thanks,” they muttered and Frisk smiled, reaching over to ruffle their hair.

 

“You should rest, we have a long way to go tomorrow if I want to get back to the front line before they realize I’ve been gone.” Frisk offered and grabbed a pillow from their bag, shoving it toward Chara before they could mutter a protest. “I’ll take first watch.”

 

Chara cast one final glance in Frisk’s direction before settling down to attempt to get some sleep, using the other human’s jacket as a blanket. Chara definitely didn’t sniff the jacket before pulling it around them, and they absolutely did not watch Frisk until they fell asleep.

  
Frisk didn’t watch them sleep either.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry it's been a while! This one took so long because of a variety of reasons. Like A) I was on a trip so I couldn't write B) When I got back from the trip our wifi got knocked out so I couldn't acess google docks and C)WRITER'S BLOCK IS A BITCH also D) I've been reading homestuck and got side tracked.
> 
> anyway so for the same reasons above ^^ this one came out kinda crappy, but i still hope you like it. Also this thing got crazy popular while I was gone, like over 1k already? Jesus people! Thank you so much for over 1k, I hope you enjoy this really fucking long kinda crappy chapter. Yours truly  
> -M

Chara woke gasping and just short of screaming. Reaching out for someone who wasn’t there, and never would be again. Their shirt was soaked through with sweat and they felt as if the autumn chill had settled in their bones. Chara glanced around the campsite, only to see that the sun was starting to peek over the horizon. Chara slowly eased their gasps.

 

“Frisk?” they called, glancing around, only to find that the shorter human was nowhere to be seen. Their jacket, however still remained draped over their shoulders. Chara carefully slipped their arms through the sleeves and were surprised to discover that it wasn’t too small.The human pretended not to notice the smell of the shorter human lingering on the jacket. 

 

“Frisk!” they called again and started to stand, black dots immediately swam in their vision and Chara gasped and fell back. Pain pounded through their head as they remembered something Frisk had said.

 

“ Well, put simply an infection is when bad stuff gets in your wounds, it can make you very sick,” the words seemed to echo around Chara’s head at their brain continued to throb. The sound of boots hitting earth were barely distinguishable from the constant pounding.

 

“Chara?” Frisk’s voice questioned and they felt the shorter human gently shaking them, but it felt distant. Like the connection between Chara and their brain was loose. “You’re burning up..” Frisk’s voice muttered, echoing just above a whisper. Chara pried their eyes open and attempted to focus them on the younger human. Frisk’s eyebrows were knit, and a patch of dirt clung to the human’s cheek, as if they had tripped recently. The medic noticed that Chara’s eyes had opened and they looked even more concerned, it that was even possible.

 

“I think I may have underestimated the severity of your infection,” the human muttered softly and helped the taller human into a sitting position. Chara wasn’t even straining to do it alone, and yet their body threatened to black out from that simple action. A grunt of pain escaped the sick teenager. Frisk swallowed nervously and sighed.

 

“Good thing I let you sleep in,” they muttered to themselves and Chara struggled to get their tounge to function.

 

“Y-You didn’t sleep?” they managed to question and Frisk just shrugged, as if this wasn’t that big of a deal.

 

“I rested earlier when we fought Vegimite. I’m fine,” Frisk said and started to unwrap the leg wound. The smell of something rotten filled the air and Chara resisted the urge to empty the contents of their stomach. Frisk frowned. “That shouldn’t be possible. I just cleaned it last night, it shouldn’t.. It couldn’t have gotten this bad overnight.” they started muttering to themselves and Chara glanced the wound over Frisks shoulder, and felt bile rise up in the back of their throat. The wounds, the day before, had been pink and slightly irritated, showing a mild infection, now they were black and oozing a sickly yellow liquid. Chara felt a wave of dizziness threaten to make them black out, and as a reflex, grabbed onto Frisk for support. The medic glanced at them, and Chara blushed. Apparently the medic no longer felt the need to hide their eyes, the dark red spheres glowed like the embers of a fire, fixing Chara with a questioning stare.

 

“Sh-Shut up, I’m just dizzy,” Chara grumbled, feeling their cheeks heating up, an amused smile appeared on the younger human’s face, soon replaced by an expression of worry.

 

“I’m afraid with the supplies I currently have, there’s not much I can do besides get you to the monster camp as quickly as possible. Unless you’d like to lose your leg?” Frisk questioned and Chara paled, shaking their head violently. “Didn’t think so. Lay back down, I’ll clean it best I can and rebandage it. That’s all I can do, sorry.”

 

Normally Chara would argue and start grumbling about how they were fine, but at this point, Chara just felt like absolute crap. Too tired, and too sick to argue, Chara flopped back on the forest floor, stirring up some of the leaves on the ground at the sun continued to rise on the horizon. Golden rays slowly stained across the sky and turned the dark starry expanse into a blank canvas of pink and blue. Being trapped underground for five-ish years was enough time to forget some of the things on the surface you liked. It feels kinda silly to think that Chara had forgotten what a sunrise looked like, or that they liked them. It feels silly to think that Chara could’ve forgotten the pattern of the stars that they used to be able to see from their bedroom window. It feels silly to think that Chara could’ve forgotten any of that, unfortunately, that’s how the world works. You forget the things you once used to value, and love, until one day you rediscover it. It’s beautiful in a way.

 

Frisk continued muttering to themself as they cleaned the wound, Chara grit their teeth, too tired to complain about how much their leg stung, or the fact that Frisk was leaning very heavily on them to keep Chara from accidentally kicking them in the face. Chara felt like their eyes were getting heavier with each passing second, threatening to close again and cause Chara to fall asleep. In an attempt to distract themselves they attempted to pick up conversation with Frisk.

 

“Wh-where did you go? When I woke up you were nowhere to be seen,” Chara mumbled, inwardly wincing at how weak their voice sounded. Frisk glanced back at them.

 

“I went to try and find some water and refill the canteens,” they said and Chara winced at Frisk’s cleaning cloth went over one of the wounds again.

 

“Well, did you find any?” they asked and Frisk nodded.

 

“There’s a stream about a quarter mile ahead. So that’s settled. Did anything happen while I was gone?” they asked and Chara mind briefly supplied an image of their nightmare, but they quickly shook it off.

 

“Not unless you count my snoring,” Chara attempted to joke, but it was weak. A smile still graced Frisk’s lips and Chara had to hand it to them, if they could put up with them like this than they deserved a fucking prize. Chara smiled weakly back, and Frisk finished with the bandages.

 

“Okay, I’m going to get my bag and then we can get going…” Frisk trailed off casting a worried glance at Chara’s leg. “Do you think you can walk, or do you need help?” they asked and Chara let out a weak growl.

 

“I can manage,” they retorted and a smile lit up the younger human’s face.

 

“Glad to see you’re still able to get angry with me for being kind to you,” they teased before going to grab their bag. Chara struggled into a sitting position again and grabbed a tree as they began to climb up to their feet. Chara had never felt so weak and useless. Their muscles burned, their chest ached, their vision swam as they slowly managed to stand. Their legs shook, and surely would’ve given out if a certain human didn’t appear beside them and wrap a supportive arm around their waist. Chara cast a glare at Frisk who just smiled in response.

 

“You’re the worst,” Chara muttered as they began their trek through the woods.

 

“Love you too pal.” Frisk chirped in response. Chara hated top admit how much they had to lean on the shorter human. They absolutely loathed the fact that they were trembling and shaking with the strain of walking just a couple of feet. They hated every second of it, just as much as they loved it. The smell of the other human intoxicatingly close and the warmth of their body chasing away the fall chill. Chara loved every second of it, and hated themselves for enjoying this moment of weakness. 

 

Frisk didn’t complain about this moment of weakness Chara was exhibiting, and didn’t seem to care that Chara was putting more than half their body weight on them. Frisk didn’t even complain that Chara might as well have been a human space heater due to their fever. Nope, instead Frisk just muttered quiet words of encouragement as the duo trekked onward, Chara’s head lulling onto Frisk’s shoulder from exhaustion. 

 

“Hey, you doing okay over there?” Frisk asked the taller human. Chara groaned quietly in response.

 

“I just want to die. This stupid headache is killing meeeeee..” Chara’s voice sounded muffled thanks to the fabric of Frisk’s shirt. 

 

“Sorry, you know I’d stop it if I could,” frisk said for what felt like the millionth time. They were starting to get seriously worried about Chara. At this rate they might not even make it to the monster camp, their fever was so high that Frisk could practically see the cold air steaming against Chara’s skin. What’s worse that Chara’s steps had become more uncoordinated and more like stumbles over the past couple minutes until they were walking like a drunk person. Frisk stopped walking finally and Chara blinked trying to get their mind to focus.

 

“W-Why are we stopping,” they murmured hoarsely as Frisk took off their Backpack, and handed it to them. Chara stumbled slightly under the weight. “Holy shit, how are you walking with both this thing and me weighing you down?!” they questioned and Frisk smiled in a way that did not quite reach their eyes.

 

“You barely weigh anything, and that’s kinda the reason we stopped. Now put that thing on your back,” Frisk instructed, too tired to argue Chara did as they were told, for once, and Frisk sighed.

 

“Okay, now what?” Chara asked and Frisk squatted down.

 

“Now climb on my back,” they said and Chara frowned.

 

“You’re giving me a piggy back ride?” they questioned and Frisk rolled their eyes.

 

“Yes, unless you want to continue stumbling along at an extremely slow pace. Now get on my back, you really don’t weigh much, and this way you can rest,” Frisk enticed and Chara sighed, climbing on the shorter human’s back, carefully wrapping their arms around Frisk’s neck.

 

“How can you be sure I won't use this position to choke you to death?” Chara questioned and felt Frisk’s body rumble as they let out a soft laugh. It was still every bit as light and innocent of a sound as it had always been. Chara still believed it was the sweetest sound their ears had ever heard, not that they’d tell Frisk that. 

 

“Well, Chara, if you did then you’d be stranded in the middle of nowhere, which I don’t think you’d enjoy. Plus, you like me too much,” Frisk answered Chara’s question, and the older human spluttered for words. 

 

“I-I wh- how- no!” they spluttered out and Frisk laughed again.

 

“Oh come on, I know you like me Grumpy-pants. You stopped referring to me as ‘kid’ and you actually agreed to get on my back. I’m not blind, you actually like me.” Frisk said and Chara Groaned, burying their face into Frisk’s hair to hide the heated cheeks that had hardly anything to do with fever.

 

“Shut uuuuuuup!” Chara muttered and Frisk smiled.

 

“Fine, but only for you Grumpy-pants, because I’ll let you in on a little secret. I like you too,” Frisk said, and Chara felt something in their stomach flutter.

 

_ Yes. but not in the same way. _ They thought and focused on the pounding of their head so they’d stop dwelling on those feeling they really did not want to decipher. They continued on their trek through the woods as the sun climbed towards it’s noon point. Chara felt increasingly worse as Frisk continued walking. The headache soon turned into a “whole-body-ache” and Chara felt like someone was grinding their insides and then stirring it as if they were making soup. Their arms ached from holding onto Frisk for so long, but they didn’t dare let go in fear of falling over. The exhaustion they had earlier practically had them sleeping on Frisk’s back. Chara wasn’t even sure if they  _ were _ awake, or if they had drifted off into some sort of really boring and painful dream.

 

“Chara,” Frisk’s voice called sounding so far away they might as well have called out to the from the other side of the Grand Canyon. Chara didn’t register it at first and just continued their half-sleep death grip on Frisk, but Frisk called again. “Chara!” Chara’s eyes snapped open and they straightened on their perch.

 

“Wha-” they asked and Frisk sighed.

 

“I said you can get off now, we’re going to take a lunch break,” Frisk said and Chara carefully slid off of Frisk’s back, taking a look at their surroundings. They had reached a small grassy clearing surrounded by oak trees. A couple large rocks were scattered across the clearing. Chara stumbled to the nearest one and slid down it, using it as something to prop themselves up with. Frisk pretended not to notice the shade paler Chara was than they’d been this morning.

 

“Here,” Frisk handed Chara a couple energy bars and a canteen of water before sitting down across from them and taking their own food. Chara didn’t fail to notice that Frisk had given them more food than they had given themself.

 

“I don’t get it,” Chara muttered after a few minutes of silence.

 

“Don’t get what?” Frisk asked, looking up at Chara. Chara was scowling and staring troubled at their empty energy bar wrapper.

 

“I don’t get why you’re being so nice and concerned about me. I’m just some random soldier who you’re probably never going to see again once you take me back to the monster camp. And even if we do see each other again it will be on opposite sides of a battlefield where my job will be to shoot at you,” Chara said, fixing Frisk with a confused look. “Why? What is it you want, because I can’t pay you back for this?! I can’t! All I can do it thank you verbally, and that can’t be what you want to hear, so why?!” Frisk frowned at what they were seeing. They were seeing a child at a complete loss as for someone would want to help them without an alternative motive. Frisk gently reached out and lay a hand on Chara’s shoulder.

 

“Chara, I don’t want anything from you. To be honest, I don’t know why I want to help you, why I want to help anyone. All I know is that it’s the right thing to do and I don’t care if some people believe it isn’t. You’re just a kid, like me, and I’m taking you home, because you still have one…” frisk trailed off and sighed. “You still have a family and a home, and so what if we only ever meet on the battlefield again? This war won’t last forever, and there’s always that to look forward to.” Frisk offered a reassuring smile, and Chara just felt a growing pile of guilt twinging in their stomach. They truly did owe this human so much, and they knew they’d never be able to return it.

 

“Yeah, I guess,” Chara muttered, not feeling like they wanted to chase that thought. Chara didn’t want to chase any thoughts right now. Chara didn’t want to think. They were just tired, just so, very tired.

 

Frisk stretched, “we’re going to rest here for maybe an hour or two so my back can rest, You’re not heavy, but still, I can’t keep carrying you for another five or six hours.” Frisk muttered sheepishly and Chara nodded, closing their eyes and trying to block out all the thoughts that threatened to consume them with guilt.

  
  


 

When Chara woke up they were moving. Or, the thing carrying them was moving. Chara slowly managed to focus their eyes to see that they were being bridal carried by Frisk as the sun’s rays slowly died in the sky.

 

“Frisk, why are you holding me like a baby?” Chara muttered quietly and Frisk glanced down at them.

 

“Oh, hey, I didn’t know you’d woken up, and I’m not. I’m just carrying you because you fell asleep a while ago, and you looked so tired.. and I didn’t want to wake you up so… yeah.” was it just Chara, or was Frisk blushing. Chara cocked an eyebrow.

 

“Okay..? How long have I been out, It looks like the sun it going down,” Frisk shrugged.

 

“You’ve been out since we stopped last, seriously, I was beginning to wonder if you would wake up. Don’t scare me like that next time,” Frisk teased, but Chara could see relief in their face. The shorter human sighed, staring ahead on their path.

 

“I’ll find a place to stop for the night soon, for now just hang on will ya?” Frisk said and Chara got the impression that Frisk was dancing around something here. Frisk continued their walk down the road, and Chara leaned their head against Frisk’s chest. The quiet, constant beats of Frisk’s heart was calming as Chara’s will to deny any sort of appreciation toward the shorter human shriveled up and died.

 

It wasn’t long into Chara’s dozing that Frisk set them down on a patch of grass and began to pitch the tent. Chara pulled themself into a sitting position and cast a glance toward Frisk. The medic visibly shook as they pitched the tent and Chara knit their eyebrows. Okay, Frisk was definitely hiding something. They watched the younger teen’s hands shake as they finished the tent.

 

“Okay, now, let’s get you off to bed, you’ve been sleeping all day anyway,” Chara couldn’t ignore the nervousness in Frisk’s voice as the medic walked over.

 

“Frisk, you’re an awful liar, tell me what happened,” Chara chastised the medic who swallowed nervously.

 

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Frisk muttered and Chara sighed, patting the pile of dirt next to them.

 

“Come on, come tell Dr. Chara about your problems.” Chara muttered and the younger human laughed softly, sitting beside them.

 

“Dr. Chara?” they asked and Chara waved it aside.

 

“Yes, Dr. Chara, but that’s not the point. The point is, what’s got you so riled up?” Chara asked, and Frisk sighed.

 

“After you fell asleep and we were walking I came across a small group of human soldiers,” Frisk whispered and Chara blinked, that’s when they noticed the fresh bandages around Frisk’s wrists and the large one around the other human’s stomach. “But they weren’t alone.” Frisk finished.

 

“What happened?’ Chara asked and Frisk sighed, putting their head in their hands.

 

“They had a monster child pinned up against one of the trees, and… and they w-were going to sho-ot i-it and, and I.. I” Frisk’s voice shook as they continued to speak, their hands clenching. Chara could imagine Frisk’s horror in that instance. Frisk was such a kind, gentle person that seeing other people hurting an innocent would not go over well. Chara rest a hand on Frisk’s shoulder.

 

“And?” chara asked. Frisk swallowed, wringing out their wrists, they looked like they were just holding back tears.

 

“A-and I couldn’t jus-just stand by and watch so.., so I… I tried to stop them…” Chara’s blood ran cold, they cast a glance at the bandages around Frisk’s stomach again.

 

“Did they shoot you?!?!” they practically yelled, Frisk flinched at the sudden rise of voice and nodded slowly. Anger, anger that burned hotter than Chara could remember it ever burning washed down Chara’s spine and an inhuman growl escaped their throat. “ThoSE LitTTLE,” Chara’s voice was unnecessarily angry, but Frisk gently placed a hand on Chara’s shoulder.

 

“Don’t get all worked up… please.. It was really my fault,” Frisk said quietly and Chara cast a glare at frisk.

 

“How is it your fault that you got shot by your own species?!” Chara protested, and Frisk’s eyes turned sad.

 

“I jumped in front of the gun,” Frisk whispered and Chara blanched.

 

“You… what?” they asked, voice softer and calmer.

 

“They were going to shoot the monster kid, so I jumped in front of the gun. I hid you first, but then.. I don’t know I just couldn’t let them hurt the kid so I jumped in front of the gun and they shot me instead. The-the mo-monst-ster kid escap-ped a-and I… I don’t.. I..” Frisk’s voice shook as they started to hyperventilate.

 

“They… they threatened to lock me in the death camps.. And.. and… Chara I broke my rule.” Frisk wasn’t just trembling now. They were shaking so badly that they looked like a temmie. 

 

“Your rule?” Chara asked confusedly.

 

“My rule.. That I’d never h-hurt an-another creature… I.. I broke it. I was so scared I just moved without thinking and… and I stole one of the soldiers rifles and..” Frisk looked at Chara with tears streaming down their cheeks. Instinctively Chara moved closer to Frisk and pulled them into a hug. Frisk whimpered like a beaten puppy. “I hit them all over the head and ran and.. And I know that probably doesn't sound tha-that ba-bad, but… but I… I hurt someone. I hurt them Chara and I… I broke my rule.” Chara resisted the urge to roll their eyes. Honestly knocking a bunch of people out wasn’t really that bad, but knowing Frisk, Chara had a feeling that Frisk felt like they had just murdered someone. 

 

“Frisk… I know you aren’t going to want to hear this, but it’s okay. It’s not like you killed them. You’re okay, and you didn’t kill anyone. A couple head injuries will heal, I promise.” Chara reassured and Frisk sighed.

 

“I-I know it sounds stupid, but I still never want to hurt a single creature. I don’t care if the wound heals, it’s still a wound. A wound that I caused,” Frisk whispered and Chara sighed.

 

“I know Frisk. Maybe we should get some rest, both of us have had a pretty fucking long day.” Chara tried to console, but Frisk shook their head.

 

“n-No, I have to stand guard in case they come back, you go ahead and rest. I-I’ll be fine.” Chara rolled their eyes,

 

“You’re the one that did all the work today, and you didn’t rest last night either. You need to rest,” Chara tried to reason, but Frisk shook their head.

 

“I can survive a couple nights without sleep, you’re injured and sick. You need to sleep, I don’t. End of conversation,” Frisk argued. Chara sighed.

 

“Why do you always do this?!”

 

“Do what?”

 

“This! This hero complex of yours! You did the same thing at lunch, you gave up what was rightfully yours for my good. Don’t think I didn’t notice you gave me more food than you gave yourself!”

 

“I’m fine, and it’s not a hero complex! I’m simply assessing needs and your needs are greater than mine at the moment.”

 

“No they aren’t! So, what I’m sick, you will be too if you don’t get any rest and what good is it to any of us if we’re both sick?!”

 

“It doesn’t matter if I’m sick as long as I get you back to your camp. That’s my job.”

 

“Your job? No it isn’t! Your ‘Job’ is to take care of sick and wounded soldiers from your army. Not to go on cross country journeys with soldiers from the opposing sides! And yes, it does matter if you get sick, because if you get sick then it will technically be my fault and I’ll owe you even more than I already do, which is to say, a lot!”

 

“No Chara, it doesn’t matter, not anymore! I can’t go back to the front lines now, I’m a fugitive, dingus! Pardon my language, but come on! I’m ‘monster sympathising scum’ now apparently and that means that I’m done for! I can’t out run the entire human population! Once I get you back to your army I’m dead, whether it’s my own fault or not they’ll catch me eventually. Do you know what happens to people who are either sympathizers for the monster cause or monsters themselves? Huh, Chara? Do you?! They get killed in the slowest, most painful ways possible. Suffering can last for years before they’re finally put out of their misery. Chara, that’s what awaits me… that’s what’s going to happen to me after all this… I save one last life… and then I die a criminal…” Frisk’s voice depleted at the end to nothing more than a whisper and Chara just stared at this human. For crying out loud this kid was younger than they were, and could never do so much as hurt a fly, and yet… and yet they were destined to die in the so called ‘monster camps’ the humans built for captured monsters? No. it just wasn’t fair. It wasn’t going to happen. No.

 

“No.” Chara whispered hoarsely, and Frisk looked up at them. 

 

“What?” Frisk asked in a voice that was so tired, and so broken it made Chara’s chest hurt.

 

“No. You aren’t going to die. Not that way at least. Frisk, come with me. Join the monsters I don’t care what strings I have to pull, I’m not going to let the humans kill you. Mom and dad would take you in, in a heartbeat. Please, Frisk.” Chara begged and Frisk gave them a sad look.

 

“Chara, I’m flattered, but I’m still human. At least you were already with the monsters before the war started, but me? No… they wouldn’t take to kindly to a new human now, besides.” Frisk sighed heavily, “I wouldn’t be that useful to the monsters, I can’t fight, nor do I want to. Neither can I be much of use medical wise considering how much better monsters are at it than I am.”

 

“Who cares, you saved my life that should be enough to convince them that you’re different. Besides, didn’t you say you saved around two dosen other monsters? They’d back you up if you were half as nice to them as you were to me, besides you literally have the heir to the monster throne on your side,” Chara tried to convince. Frisk rose an eyebrow. 

 

“I do?” they asked and Chara rolled their eyes.

 

“Duh, I’m right here dummy!” Chara said and Frisk blinked.

 

“Wait you’re what?” they asked and Chara just sighed.

 

“Look, that’s not important, what is important is at least consider it. I won’t make you give me a definite answer right now, but please just say you’ll think about it.” Chara pleaded and Frisk sighed.

 

“Fine, I’ll think about it.” Frisk conceded and Chara grinned.

 

“Great, now let’s get to bed, and that includes you,” Chara said. Frisk rolled their eyes.

 

“Sure thing, mom.”

 

“Screw you!”

 

“Love you too.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some exposition on Frisk, also a long awaited scene

Frisk awoke the quiet sound of rain on their tent. Not hard, blasting rain that makes you wonder if the world’s about the end. No. Instead the gentle pitter patter of droplets hitting the surface, and racing each other down the sides. Just quiet, unending, soft rain. Frisk almost didn’t want to get up. They were warm and dry, and everything just felt safe. The thought of getting up just did not seem appealing as the human slowly opened their eyes to focus on the warm thing wrapped around their middle.

 

Chara’s sleeping face was a mere couple of centimeters from their own, their face stuck in their eternal blush, and lips pulled upward in a sleepy smile. Frisk couldn’t help but smile at the sleeping teen. Their sleeping face was just so… different. Different from the Chara they were starting to get used to seeing. The outgoing, slightly crazy, suspicious, insecure, lonely teen just didn’t seem like the same person. This Chara, this sleeping, completely unguarded Chara was almost… almost human. If that even made sense. This Chara had a sleepy smile that Frisk could tell wasn’t forced and lit up their face in a natural was. This Chara didn’t have their face stuck in an eternal forced expression of fake happiness. This Chara was there, and this Chara… this Chara was real. Unguarded, vulnerable, and real.

 

Frisk smile and started to sit up, but Chara apparently other plans. A sleepy noise of protest came from the other child and Frisk found that the “warm thing” surrounding them was, in fact, the other sleeping human. Chara’s arms tightened around Frisk’s shoulders as the younger human attempted to get up.

 

“Chara,” Frisk called softly to the taller human. Chara muttered something that didn’t quite reach coherence. Frisk wriggled their arm free of the other human’s grasp and rested it on the other human’s forehead. It seemed that for once the teen’s fever had broken. After a bit more wriggling, Frisk was free and made it to the tent entrance. Peeking out they could just barely make out the moon through the clouds. Half moon, waning. Frisk frowned, had they really been out here that long? Frisk glanced back at the still sleeping Chara and pulled on their boots.

 

Frisk couldn’t help it, yes they knew Chara was right and that they  _ should  _ rest, but the other human didn’t know how long Frisk had been doing this. Chara didn’t know how much the other humans  _ wanted _ them captured. How much they would want them  _ dead _ . News had gotten out about an alleged Human who was transporting illegal monsters through the wilderness. Fortunately for Frisk they hadn’t known who to blame or found any of the camps, but now they did know who to blame. They knew that the alleged “Monster savior” was a 15-year-old kid with a rocky history with the police and almost no proper education. They knew who Frisk was, and they would come for them. 

 

Besides, it’s not like they could sleep anyway. The fact they’d managed to even drift into a light doze long enough for Chara to fall asleep on top of them was astounding enough. Being able to fall asleep twice on this trip was just a downright miracle. Frisk couldn’t remember the last time they’d gotten a full night of sleep, probably because they never had. Thunder grumbled lowly in the distance and Frisk glanced up at the thin walls of the tent. Hopefully, it would hold enough to keep them dry. Chara started to rouse slightly, apparently aware of their missing human teddy bear.

 

“Shhhhhh, it’s okay, I’m right here,” Frisk muttered to the still half-asleep teen, reaching out to pat their friend’s head. Chara muttered something that sounded like, “nachos,” before settling back down, gripping onto Frisk’s arm like it was a lifeline. A blush crept to the shorter teen’s face and Frisk coughed awkwardly.

 

“Dork,” Frisk muttered before carefully settling back down next to Chara, who continued clinging to their arm. Frisk inspected Chara’s hands, fingers gently curled around their arm, with nails that basically did not exist. They noticed Chara’s sleeves had been tugged up slightly on their left arm, and ugly, swollen pink scars peeked out underneath. Frisk felt like the world had suddenly come crashing down on their head. All they could see were the swollen pink scars and the sound of the rain against the tent soon became drowned out by blood pounding through Frisk’s ears.

 

Carefully, silently, almost as if they might wake Chara (despite them proving to be a deep sleeper) Frisk gently pried their fingers from their arm, and rolled up Chara’s sleeves. The older teen did not stir, but Frisk stared helplessly at the endless pinks marks on Chara’s arms. Going down to the elbow and Frisk feared that they didn’t stop their either. Frisk’s stomach did acrobatics as they stared, feeling their heartbeats pound harder and harder. 

 

“I didn’t think you were that bad,” Frisk whispered. The sleeping teen gave no reply. Frisk carefully reached for their bag and gently wrapped their arms in bandages, before letting the teen settle down. Chara set themselves in Frisk’s lap and Frisk was left there, staring at the older human with tired eyes, that were so much older than the teen themselves.

 

The memories of Frisk before the war started were so… empty. Frisk almost felt as if it had all happened to a different person, but it was still there. It still happened, they still had the scars to prove it. Frisk watched their own trembling hands as they played with Chara’s hair, some kind of numb satisfaction pulling at their heartstrings. They remembered that day… the day all those months ago. How old had they been? Twelve? Thirteen? Didn’t matter, they were younger, more vulnerable, more naive, more trusting.

  
  
  


“Please!” the child cried, pain lacing its way through the child’s spine. The belt came down again, this time, the buckle dug into the soft, tender skin that was exposed for the crack of the make-shift whip. The child screamed, tears flowing down cheeks that had already bared witness to so many. The whip came down again, and the child screamed louder. Fingers digging into the floor, pleading eyes staring, begging for their tormentor to stop. To just stop, but the tormentor did not stop, instead they rose the whip again, ready to bring down another blow.

“Stop!” a voice called, and the tormentor froze looking up at their master. The man was tall, pot-bellied and old. Hair the color of sandpaper fell in a mane down to the man’s shoulders and tangled itself in a smelly heap atop his head. In the dim lighting of the warehouse, his eyes looked like steel. A smile like a slash across his face split his lips, showing rotting, black teeth.

“Well done young Justice, you have learned the true meaning of no mercy, you may set the belt aside and join your classmates.” the man barked, and a wicked grin crossed the face of the tormentor. He was a child, no older than Frisk at the time, with spiky yellow hair and eyes the color of ice. In an almost disturbing lightness of feet the child left the other one, making his way to his master’s side. The man smiled cruelly.

“Next!” the man yelled and another child was shoved into the light, next to the one tied to the floor. The beaten child looked up at the other with pleading green eyes, blood sliding down their back. The child with the belt stood frozen, the only visible emotion on their face was of horror, their hands trembling as they stared.

“Is there something wrong, Frisk?” the man asked the child. The child did not reply, instead stood motionless, gripping the whip while they refused to move. The man sighed, taking a drag on a cigar that had seemed to materialize in his hand. Cold, empty eyes stared at the frozen child. “Why do you always have to make such a big deal out of this? You know the rules of my protection, Frisk,” the way he said the name like it was acid on his tongue, made the child flinch. “You must honor our agreement, and always bring me your wares, or you will be subjected to torture from your peers. Now Frisk, begin your torment, or I’ll remind you, that you’ll be next. Is that what you want, Frisk? Because I thought you had enough scars from last week?” His voice was like nails on a chalkboard, screeching and piercing through Frisk’s head. The child sat there, helpless, and eyes begging as Frisk felt their fingers shake.

“Please,” the child pleaded and Frisk cast one more glance at the man and the shorter child at his side. Matching grins of evil and eyes like dead stone. With trembling hands, and broken apologies tumbling from their lips, Frisk rose the whip and sent the end come snapping down.

  
  
  
  


Chara awoke with the sound of rain pattering overhead, and someone running their fingers carefully through their hair. Slowly, the groggy, feverish haze left Chara’s mind and they slowly sat up, only to nearly black out as they did. As usual, Frisk was already there to catch them.

 

“Sleep well?” Frisk asked softly, their voice scratchy and soft in some morning fashion that was surprisingly cute. Chara cast a glance at the other human. A soft, tired smile was stretched across their face, as Frisk stared at them with kind eyes. Chara wasn’t entirely sure how someone could manage to look attractive with their hair sticking up in all directions and their clothes slightly rumpled, but Frisk somehow managed it.

 

“Clearly better than you, what happened?” Chara muttered, acknowledging the bags under the other human’s eyes. Frisk shrugged helplessly.

 

“Couldn’t sleep,” they muttered softly. Something was almost wistful in their tone, a glimmer of guilt in Frisk’s voice. Chara knit their eyebrows.

 

“Nightmares?” they asked, but Frisk just sighed.

 

“You could call it that,” was all the teen said, before standing and handing Chara an energy bar. “Here, we need to get moving soon, it’s only a matter of time before those human soldiers find us.”

 

Chara frowned, “Are you even sure they’re after us, and you’re not just overreacting? If you hit them hard enough over the head, they might not even remember seeing you,” Chara complained. Frisk sent them a slight glared. “Right, sorry.”

 

“Just please get out of the tent, the sooner we get to your camp, the sooner I can stop worrying about the humans,” Frisk muttered and opened the tent flap, stepping out into the rain. Chara sighed and left the dry warmth of the tent.

 

It took a total of five minutes to disassemble the tent and start walking again. At first, Chara was starting to think they were doing better. They managed a total of three miles without any help. Then, half-way through the fourth, it hit them like a brick wall. One moment, they felt fine, the next everything washed black and the world started spinning so violently Chara couldn’t remember which way was up.

 

“Chara!” Frisk called, but for Chara, it sounded a million miles away, as their vision danced in and out. One moment they could see a very blurry version of Frisk, and the next everything was gone and they could only hear everything through a long echoing tunnel. “Oh god, your head.” Frisk’s voice whispered and Chara felt their body leave the ground and then, not much of anything else. The rain on their skin just felt gone, and distant. There was just nothing. Just nothing. Nothing, but empty blackness spreading in all directions. Chara couldn’t feel, couldn’t see, couldn’t move. All they could do was listen through a long, echoing tunnel as Frisk soldiered on through the forest.

 

“Stupid, stupid, stupid. I should’ve checked their leg before we left, goddamnit,” Frisk’s voice said, and Chara desperately wanted to tell Frisk it wasn’t their fault, that they were just concerned with getting somewhere safe. But Chara couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, just listening to the beats of Frisk’s heart and the raggedness of their breathing as the forest sky poured out rain on the both of them. Chara couldn’t feel the rain.

  
  
  


Chara wasn’t sure how long they’d been stuck like that when the human’s found them, and they just thought Frisk was being paranoid. Chara was beginning to get used to the tunnel version of frisk’s labored breaths, and quick heart beats when they heard it. 

 

It at first seemed like a clap of thunder, until Chara was aware of the fact that the sound of Frisk’s heartbeat was gone. Panic started to seize Chara’s lifeless body, until they felt themselves being hoisted up again and Frisk’s labored breath’s returned, becoming more frantic and crazy. 

 

“Shit,” the voice breathed, and Chara was surprised to hear the shorter human cuss, and even more surprised as Frisk muttered some other words that can’t be repeated here. Shouting in the distance echoed in Chara’s head, as did the sound of something large crashing. Chara tried to move, to speak, to pry their eyes open and at least see the threat, but they couldn’t move. They were helpless and alone. 

  
  


Frisk clung onto Chara as they ran through the storming forest. Thunder clapped overhead and Frisk jumped, flying over a small creek, they could hear the sound of footsteps behind them as the other Human’s chased after them. Shouting echoing just under the howling of the wind.

 

“They’re getting away!” a human shouted, the voice was feminine and Frisk ducked under a branch, sliding down a hill as rain plastered their hair to their face. Chara’s lifeless body hung in their arms, the taller human’s eyes were plastered shut and their head rested limply against Frisk’s chest. Frisk tried to ignore the pain racing up their legs as they stumbled over a root. The pain in their body was already bad enough as it was. Frisk glanced the giant rock they had marked the first time they’d been there.

 

“Almost there,” they gasped, glancing down at Chara, who’s forehead burned against Frisk’s chest. The human’s yelled as Frisk rounded a corner, scurrying up a slope and leaped over a log at least half their own height. 

 

“Almost there,” Frisk chanted to themself, like it was some kind of incantation that would ward off evil spirits. The human’s behind Frisk yelled as the one in the lead tripped over the tree Frisk had just cleared, holding the other’s back as they tripped over their fallen comrade. Frisk swallowed heavily.

 

“Almost there,” Frisk whispered, and Chara seemed to rouse at those words, making the first noise they had in hours.

 

“Uuuugh,” Chara muttered and Frisk jumped over another log, catching their ankle on the edge of it and landing face first in the mud.

 

“No, no, no, no,” Frisk whispered and climbed back to their feet, ignoring the agony tearing through their leg, and pretending not to see the blood leaking from their nose. They scooped up Chara again and took off running, the shouts of the human’s slowly falling behind. “Almost there.” Frisk chanted.

 

“Almost there…?” Chara’s weak voice asked and Frisk glanced down at the sick figure. Chara’s eyes now open slightly and glowing in the dim light. 

 

“Yeah,” Frisk managed to pant out and collapsed at the edge of the woods, and lay Chara down, rain plastering both of the human’s clothes to their bodies. “You’re home, some monster on patrol will come this way soon and find you, this… this is as far as I can go,” Frisk whispered, their body trembling with adrenaline and pain. Chara blinked and tried to sit up.

 

“Wh-What? No… no Fri-Frisk, you…. You’re supposed to come with me!” Chara protested, and Frisk smiled ruefully.

 

“No, Chara… I can’t I have to lead the other humans away. They’re after me, if I keep running they’ll follow and they won’t find the camp. I… I can’t let them find the camp.” Frisk’s eyes were glazed over from pain and exhaustion. Chara grabbed the front of Frisk’s shirt and clung onto it.

 

“No. no,  you… you’re coming with me,” they protested, but Chara’s voice was dying off at the end as they struggled for consciousness. Frisk smiled and planted a kiss on the other teen’s forehead.

 

“I’m sorry, I’ll send word if I can when I figure out a way out of this. Take care of yourself,” Frisk whispered and stood on shaking legs, and took off running in opposite direction.

  
“Frisk!” Chara tried to cry out, but their voice broke, their vision swam, and the word exploded before their eyes, washing black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Howdy, writing is really freaking hard when you've got, like 50 ideas all bumping around in your head at once. Sooooooo, yeah that's a thing. I feel like I'm living a double life now sorta, slightly popular fanfic writer by night, really bored kid during the day... oh well. Thanks for all the nice comments by the way, it really helps me out! Thanks for all the continued love and support!  
> -M


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Char might want to see a neurologist. Frisk might want to see an emergency room

Sunlight slowly streamed past Chara’s fluttering eyelids. The teen groaned and rolled over, reaching down to pull the blanket over their head. It was much too early to get up and they already felt like shit. Mom better have had a good reason for opening the tent flap this early. They waited for the inevitable, and slightly exasperated call, from their mother to get up, but not call came. The tent remained deadly silent beside their own steady breathing. Knitting their brows in confusion, Chara slowly opened their eyes to discover they weren’t in their tent. Instead, they lay on a stretcher in the medical field. Why the heck were they in the medical field, more importantly, where the hell were their parents?

 

Chara sat up and glanced around the field drowsily. Other monsters lay sprawled out on stretchers and cots, suddenly a voice behind them nearly made them jump out of their skin.

 

“ Finally! You’re awake! ” the voice was way too cheerful for someone who was injured, so when Chara spun around to see a tall skeleton with his arm in a sling, they were quite surprised.

 

“F-Finally? How… how long have I been out?” Chara questioned the monster. The skeleton shrugged. He was sitting on his own stretcher, but for some reason, he seemed perfectly fine with his position. 

 

“ A couple days, I found you on patrol and you did not exactly look well, so I don’t blame you. Still, as The Great Papyrus, it is my duty to make sure that the moral of all our troops is high! ” Papyrus cheered, smiling widely. Something about that sentence was so sickeningly familiar that Chara felt dizzy.

 

“A couple days?” Chara muttered, rubbing their head. “Man, that grenade must’ve hit me hard.”

 

“ Grenade? ” Papyrus asked and Chara glanced up. 

 

“Yeah, the grenade. I was just out at an attack on glen ridge. I got caught by a grenade and knocked unconscious,” Chara said, sounding slightly confused as if they could sense they were missing something. 

 

Papyrus’ eyes (eye sockets?) lit up like headlights, and a smile the size of texas stretched across his face. How he could even do that without muscles, Chara wasn’t sure. 

 

“What? Did you write on my face or something?!” the human asked irritably. 

 

“ You’re on the front lines?! ” Papyrus shrieked enthusiastically. Chara was pretty sure their eardrums no longer existed but answered the question anyway.

 

“Y-Yes? You should know that if you’re here too, ! mean I am back in the alpha camp right?” Chara was beginning to wonder if they were missing some crucial piece of information.

 

“ No, silly, ” Papyrus said, but his smile hadn’t faltered. “ You must’ve come a long way to get here, you’re in the omega camp. We’re a long way from the front lines, but we still work our hardest to train our men. I can’t believe I’m actually meeting a soldier from the front lines! Do you know Captain Undyne?! What am I saying you must have! Is she cool?! Does she like spaghetti?! Can she really suplex three boulders at once?! ” His voice was so enthusiastic, and he looked so much like an overexcited puppy, Chara’s brain decided to supply them with an image of Asriel. Chara directed their eyes downward.

 

“Er, Yes, kinda, I think so, and five,” Chara found themselves muttering. Papyrus squealed excitedly. 

 

“ So the rumors were true! ” he cheered and Chara looked down at themselves to observe the damage from the grenade wound. Ugly scars on their right leg, and another on their side, but that was normal. Chara sighed sadly and started to stand. Suddenly the world was spinning around them and they fell back into their cot. For some reason, they felt as if there should’ve been… something in that instant. No, not something… someone? But who? Chara didn’t have many friends, especially after Azzy… er… well, Chara’s only living friend would have to be Undyne. If you could even call them friends, more just, very familiar acquaintances. No, but Chara was almost positive, that as they were falling, there was supposed to be someone there to catch them. But there wasn’t. So Chara crashed back into the cot heavily and the wood gave under the sudden impact.

 

Despite Chara’s light weight, the sound of a teenage child hitting the ground, and wood snapping are apparently loud enough to get the rest of the camp’s attention. Monsters rushed forward, crying out calls of, “Are you okay?!” and, “Oh gosh that looked painful!” Chara on the other hand, lay on the ground, dazed and trying to figure out what that missing thing was

 

“Wow! Should I got get Dr. Alphys?”one of the monsters asked, and with Chara too dazed to growl a retort, Papyrus cheerfully accepted.

 

“ I think they’re just fine, but it couldn’t hurt to get them checked out, could it?! ” the skeleton chirped and a couple monsters rushed off to get Alphys. Chara tried to sit up on their own, only for the world to start spinning again, and what felt like a familiar voice echoing in their ears. 

 

“ Probably not a good Idea for you to get up!” the voice called and Chara blinked, where had they heard that before? The world was swimming with black dots and everything felt like it was happening a long way away, as the darkness rushed up to consume Chara. 

  
  
  


“ What do you think happened to them ?” a voice called. It was deep, gruff, male and something different from the endless darkness of unconsciousness, so Chara focused on it. Another voice, lighter, more timid, feminine, joined it. 

 

“I-I’m not s-sure, if wh-what Pap says is true then w-we’re dealing with a-a soldier from the Alpha camp,” it said. The other voice let out a gruff sigh.

 

“ Yeah, okay, but why would the Alpha camp have a human soldier, and more importantly, how would they even get here? Especially bundled up in bandages and half frozen to death! I’m telling you our camp’s location has been compromised ,” the man barked. The other voice was calmer, but at the same time seemed just as concerned.

 

“W-Well, then move the camp, genius! Y-You a-are the one i-in charge aren’t you!” she sounded a bit irritated as well. The man made a kind of huff of satisfaction.

 

“ Sadly no, you forget Alphys, that I’m not really in control and that the boss won’t believe me ,” he sounded so resigned. Alphys sighed.

 

“I know, but you honestly have no one but yourself t-to blame for that,” she answered. The other voice sighed heavily.

 

“ Again, I know, so thoughts on the kid ?” he changed the subject, and Alphys went along with it.

 

“It seems th-that they’re just in shock from the whole ordeal, don’t really b-blame them honestly. W-we still haven’t found any evidence as to where they’re from. A-also they were wearing the monster uniform when we found them, but underneath an h-human medical jacket.” The man made a noise of discomfort.

 

“ They could possibly be Tori’s missing kid. I mean she did say that it was a fallen human, ” he offered. Alphys sighed.

 

“Maybe, but how would her kid get all the way over here. L-Like you said it’s a long way, especially f-for someone in th-their condition.”

 

“ Then we’ll just have to wait for the kid to wake up. ” The man’s voice offered. Alphys sighed.

 

“I’m getting tired of waiting for everything,” she whispered. The man didn’t speak but just huffed in agreement.

 

Chara attempted to open their eyes and growl out that they were definitely not a part of the stinking human army. Unfortunately, semi-consciousness doesn’t work like that, and the teen remained motionless, whilst screaming silently about how much they disliked being compared to the humans. However, Chara was slightly curious too. Had they been found in a human medical jacket? Where the hell did they get that?! More importantly, why the hell would they willingly wear it?! Chara decided that they’d much rather freeze to death than wear a jacket from the human army. 

 

However, for some reason, they could perfectly see a mental image of the jacket in question. A little bit small, but with thicker fabric than the monster uniform, with a large, and slightly beat up, red cross on the left arm and breast pocket. The jacket was burned at the edge of the cuffs and patched up on the right elbow, it smelled like firewood and cinnamon. How did they know that? Why did they know that?! 

 

Chara’s eyes slowly fluttered open to focus on the darkened tent around them. The two people who had been speaking forward were gone now, and for the first time, they were alone. Chara held a hand to their forehead and tried to sense out their cluttered thoughts.

 

_ Okay Chara, breathe and bring forward what you do know. Let’s see, you know you were in combat and that you got knocked out and injured by a grenade. You know that you were found by the omega camp in a human medical jacket and that the omega camp is roughly 50 miles away from your starting point. You know you were unconscious for two days after arrival, and that at some point you were sick. Okay, good, good, so what I don’t know, is how I got here, or where I got the jacket from. Okay. Okay. _

 

Chara took a deep breath and looked around the empty tent. There, sitting on a chair nearly three feet away, was the human medical jacket in question. It was just as Chara had mentally pictured it, burn marks and all. Swallowing a lump that had formed in their throat, for reasons they didn’t understand, they carefully reached over and picked it up. The fabric was definitely thicker than that of the monster uniform. Chara carefully brought the jacket up to their face and sniffed. Sure enough, the smell of cinnamon and firewood filled their nostrils and Chara nearly dropped the jacket in surprise. How had they known that? How had they known any of this? They had never even seen the jacket before, they were sure of it, but yet… they knew. Footsteps appeared outside the tent flap, and Chara instinctively hid the jacket under the covers of the cot they lay in.

 

A skeleton, shorter than the one they’d seen before, ducked through the tent flap. He wore an oversized and loose aviator jacket, with puffy fuzz on the inside. An aviator cap cat upon his head, the goggles tucked on to it tightly, though Chara wasn’t sure what the use was for aviator goggles without eyes. An eternal, shit eating grin was practically engraved into the skeleton’s face, the laid back attitude that radiated off the skeleton felt... Fragile, like he was waiting for something before exploding. Chara found themselves feeling pretty intimidated.

 

“ You’re finally awake, ” the skeleton commented, and Chara felt surprised. They recognized his voice from earlier when he’d been arguing with Alphys. Apparently, Chara didn’t respond fast enough because the skeleton was already continuing with his comments. “ Well, can’t blame you. When my bro and I found you, you looked bone tired, ” Chara felt themselves cringing, was the pun really necessary?

 

“Er, okay..?” Chara muttered questioningly. The skeleton sighed, though Chara wasn’t sure how one breathed without lungs.

 

“ Alright kid, let’s get to the point. We need to know how you ended up here, and who you are. I’m guessing that you’re not on the human’s side due to your uniform, and how you aren’t afraid of me just because I’m a monster. So, let’s stare with an easy question. Who are you? ” He barked, and Chara resisted the urge to give a very sarcastic response. They really just wanted to go home at this point.

 

“My name is Chara Dreemurr, I’m the adopted child of Toriel and Asgore Dreemurr. I got knocked out in battle by a grenade, and somehow ended up here. That’s all I know,” Chara muttered. The skeleton frowned, how he even changed facial expression without muscles, Chara had no idea.

 

“ I get the sense that you’re leaving something out. C’mon kid you gotta,  _ throw me a bone _ , ” his grin reappeared but was more forced this time. Chara groaned.

 

“You’re as bad as my mom! And no, I’m not, that’s really all that I know. I’ve got a complete blank after the grenade until I talked to your ‘bro’ yesterday,” Chara supplied, and the skeleton knit his eyebrows (or what Chara could imagine his eyebrows would be if they existed). He sighed.

 

“ Fine, but you’ve got  _ tibia _ honest with me, ” he muttered and Chara let out a groan of exasperation. “ Do you know anything, about how you got that jacket? ” he asked. Chara blinked in surprise and glanced at the army uniform, peaking out from the bed covers.

 

“No, but I feel like I should? Does that even make sense?” they muttered. The skeleton sighed.

 

“ Nope, it doesn’t, but I get the feeling you’re too tired to lie right now. So go back to sleep, I’ll send Alphys to come and check on you again. I’ll send word to the Alpha camp that you’re alive. I know Tori will be thrilled. ” he muttered and exited the tent, leaving a confused teenager clinging to a jacket they didn’t know how they got. Is it wrong to feel sentimental value for something you can’t remember?

  
  
  
  


Frisk wasn’t sure how long they’d been running, but they were sure that it had been days. Their legs felt like jelly, and their heart like a machine gun constantly firing in their chest. The humans chasing them couldn’t have been much better off, but Frisk didn’t dare stop running. Their head ached, and they could feel the blood on their hands drying. Stupid humans hadn’t stopped when Frisk had fallen down a fricking ravine, hadn’t stopped when Frisk had dived through a hole the size of a badger, hadn’t even stopped when Frisk had run straight into a bear. They just kept chasing, like Frisk was some kind of ultimate prize in a game of extreme “greased pig”. Frisk wasn’t even sure where they were going anymore, all they could think was,  _ gotta keep going, gotta get away from monster camps, gotta buy Chara more time. _ Even now, the thoughts were in a constantly jumbled stream they could barely hear over their own breathing. Frisk stumbled over a log and tumbled down a steep incline. Their head knocking straight into a tree.

 

“Keep going, keep going,” they whispered to themself as they struggled back to their feet, ignoring the black spots dancing in their vision. Since they’d left Chara they hadn’t stopped to drink, to breathe, to sleep, not even to eat, and especially not to sleep. At this point, they were running off of Adrenaline and determination alone. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough. Frisk barely made it back into the cover of the trees before their legs gave out, spilling them head first into a large tree.

 

“Ugh…” they groaned, their arms shaking under the strain to lift themselves up. Nothing, their arms gave out. They could hear the other humans coming closer. “Gotta keep going… gotta buy Chara more time…” they whispered to themself and struggled into a kneeling position. They were not going to be taken without a fight.

 

“I heard something, this way!” one of the other humans yelled and their footsteps were getting closer. Frisk managed to get to their feet, though they had to lean against a tree for support. Frisk struggled to even focus on the other human’s faces. The first one was latino, with large dark eyes and closely cropped black hair. Another was a younger girl with wild blonde hair and crazed blue eyes, and the final one… Frisk almost forgot how to breathe. The final one was Frisk’s age with large purple eyes and shoulder length brown hair. A pair of purple glasses perched atop a beak-like nose. The first human grinned smugly.

 

“You gave us quite a chase, but finally you’re cornered,” he grinned evilly and the younger girl aimed a pistol at Frisk’s chest. The third human held up a hand.

 

“Relax destiny, our orders are capture, not kill,” they said calmly and stepped toward Frisk, who reached behind their back, groping for something to defend themselves with. “It’s nice to see you again Frisk, though I’m sorry to see that these are the circumstances.” the teen offered and came closer, as Frisk grabbed a large stick, and held it like a baseball bat, still leaning against the tree for support.

 

“I wish I could say the same,” Frisk whispered breathlessly. A cold smile stretched across the other teen’s face, one that Frisk recognized all too well, they gripped their branch tighter.

 

“Yes, I will say our last meeting wasn’t as friendly as I wished it could be. Now, put down the stick, and come with us. You know you’re in trouble,” the teen said, and Frisk spat blood at them.

 

“Last I checked, you weren’t Justice,” Frisk muttered. The other human laughed.

 

“That clown? He’s in jail, where he belongs,” they offered. Frisk wheezed.

 

“By that logic you belong there too, all of us do,” Frisk’s vision blurred for a second and they grabbed the tree tighter.

 

“Very observant, Frisk, or would you prefer I called you Determination?” the wicked grin on the other teen’s face made Frisk’s blood boil.

 

“Perseverance,” they rasped, and the other teen’s grin faltered a bit. Frisk let their own smirk light their face. “We both know what we did in the past, and we both tried to move on. In our own ways we have, mine is just different than yours. Please don’t do this, don’t do what I know you’re going to do, you’ll just be dragging both of us back in. He’s dead, long gone, and we’re free from his commands. So please, just don’t.”

 

Perseverance’s breathing was getting quicker, as anger blazed on their face. “Yes, he’s dead dammit, I know that! I also know that you’re ‘moving on’ has lead you to cause treason on all of humankind! I can’t believe I actually respected you! You’re just some punk kid who likes to break rules! You did it before, and you’re doing it now. Don’t think I don’t remember _ who _ killed him, Frisk! You’re a murderer, even if it was someone as wicked as  _ that man _ , you still killed him. You’re no better than I am, so don’t act like you are!” The teen charged Frisk, and the other teen slashed downward with the stick.

 

Perseverance ducked under the branch and punched Frisk across the face, and Frisk stumbled backward, bringing up the stick to block Perseverances punches. Memories of the fight with vegemite swirled in Frisk’s head as they rolled, ducked and blocked as many of Perseverances as they could. However, this fight was not like vegemite's. Frisk did not have HP to suffer, and instead, the bruises and cuts would stain their skin. The teen was already weak for running for nearly three days without rest. Perseverance slammed Frisk into a tree with a wide trunk and continued beating them. Frisk couldn’t move to defend themselves, they could feel their left eye swelling shut, and their jaw throbbing. 

  
CRACK! And there went their ribs. Frisk didn’t feel the tears of pain slipping down their cheeks as the other teen just continued to punch and kick them. They didn’t feel their hip bones crack. Didn’t feel their arm shatter. They didn’t feel their skull smack into the tree hard enough to draw blood. Even when their body gave out and they slumped to the forest floor, Perseverance kept kicking Frisk in the stomach. Frisk had long since lost the feeling in their body, but they still managed to cough up the blood clogging their windpipe before they finally fell unconscious. They silently thanked the gods for the ability to go unconscious, because they didn’t think they could live through any more of that. Now, though, they were going to be heading straight into the fire. The monster death camps were awaiting Frisk’s arrival.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> frisk has more than they bargained for, Chara seriously needs to see a brain doctor

CRACK. Frisk’s face jerked to the side and light flashed before their eyes. The world spun as a loud crashing noise filled the room, Frisk lay there for a moment, dazed. Where were they? Slowly, Frisk managed to pry their left eye open, however their right eye, along with their right cheek, felt swollen. A bright, unnatural light was beamed directly into Frisk’s face, as the room slowly swam into focus. The room of empty, grey floors, grey ceiling, and grey walls. A metal table sat infront of Frisk with a lamp and a strange device propped on it.Next to the lamp sat a towering shadow with a missive grin. Their teeth glinted like knives and their eyes flashed an electric blue. Frisk’s cheek throbbed and something told them that the figure had something to do with that. The woman reached down and lugged Frisk back into an upright position. Frisk tried to ignore the pain in their stomach, but their entire body felt like it was an anvil, constantly throbbing and like lead. Frisk doubted that they could’ve stood up if they tried, and not just because of the restraints on the chair they were strapped to.

 

“Good morning,” the other human said, her eyes glittering coldly, but Frisk recognized them all the same. “Frisk.” She spat the word as if it burned her tongue. Frisk winced.

 

“Patience,” Frisk whispered and the girl’s grin broadened.

 

“So you do remember us, with what Perseverance told me I was starting to wonder,” Patience bit her lip and she looked Frisk up and down.

 

“He really did a number on you, I don’t blame him of course, but still,” she made chittering noises like some sort of bird. In a movement a viper would’ve been impressed by, she had grabbed Frisk by the chin in an Iron grip, her blue eyes flashing with cold amusement. “Such a shame to beat up such a pretty face.” Frisk jerked backward in an attempt to escape her grip, but Patience just yanked them closer. 

 

“What do you want,” Frisk hissed, and Patience chuckled. 

 

“Simple, I want to know where you’ve been transporting all of those monsters you rescued,” she said and Frisk swallowed the bile rising in their throat from how close the woman’s face was to theirs. She smelled like mouthwash and gun powder, a combination that just insulted Frisk’s nose.

 

“Bite me,” Frisk responded and Patience let out an evil cackle that rattled Frisk’s lungs, which already felt like deflated balloons. 

 

“Oh, I plan too, but first,” the girl grabbed Frisk’s shirt collar and pulled it downward, grinning at what she saw. A large, jagged scar shone upon Frisk’s collar bone. Patience smiled. “Remember when I gave you that scar?” she asked and what happened next Frisk blamed to memories and instinct.

 

First, they jerked backward with such force that the chair they were in started to fall backward, then they kicked outward, hitting the table and spilling all of its contents on the floor, including the girl sitting on it, who fell forward. Just as Frisk hit the ground, she came crashing on top of her, driving her elbows into Frisk’s stomach. Frisk gasped and she grinned.

 

“I’ll take that as a, yes,” she whispered, her face annoyingly close to Frisk’s. Frisk felt as if they had been trapped in a nightmare. A nightmare where all of their worst memories were flooding back to drown them. Frisk straggled against their bounds, trying desperately to get away from Patience. If Perseverance was poison, Patience was acid, and Frisk felt like they were going to start crying if they had to spend another ten seconds with this living nightmare. Patience stood up and lugged Frisk up with her. She picked up the devices Frisk had seen earlier. 

 

“Tsk, tsk. You should be careful, you don’t want to break my toys do you?” she asked, giving Frisk a sly look. Frisk could feel their heart beating faster and fear dulling their senses.

 

“I-I’m not going to tell you a-anything about the monsters,” Frisk rasped and Patience smiled.

 

“Really?” she asked and placed the strange devices on Frisk’s wrists. Frisk swallowed the bile rising in their throat. “Because I think you’ll find I can be very persistent. Also, I’m going to tell it to you straight,” she grabbed a remote from the floor and turned to look Frisk in the eyes. Her evil grin gone, and her face emotionless. “If you don’t cooperate, and don’t give us the information we want you will suffer a fate in the next couple years that will be worse than anything hell could ever concoct for a person like you in eternity. Okay, Frisky?” Frisk swallowed, and Patience grinned.

 

“Good, so let’s start with an easy one, how many monsters did you help?” she asked. Frisk cast their face downward and closed their good eye. Patience sighed. “You always did know how to wear my patience thin.”

 

The first shock came and Frisk screamed. It was a horrible, pitiful sound that was as agonizing as it was short. Patience might’ve actually flinched more than Frisk did. The shock arched up Frisk’s spine and tore through their body so fast and so painfully that Frisk could feel their internal organs shudder. Patience stared at Frisk like they had sprouted two heads.

 

“Holy shit, I didn’t think anyone could scream like… that,” she muttered as Frisk attempted to regain the ability to breathe. Patience cleared her throat and tried again. “Alright, now that you know what you’re facing, let’s try again. How many monsters did you help?” Frisk didn’t answer and just focused on their breathing, reminding themselves why they couldn’t say anything.

 

_ Can’t let them find the camps, gotta buy them time. Gotta buy them more-  _ ZZAP. Frisk didn’t scream this time but instead convulsed in the wave of electricity that ran through their body. Frisk held in the tears that threatened to pour down their cheeks. They refused to give this girl the satisfaction of seeing them cry. Patience sighed and rolled her eyes

 

“I can keep doing this all day, Frisk. So you better figure out what you’re going to tell me soon. Now, how many monsters did you help?” she asked, her voice turning sickly sweet. Frisk opened their eye and looked up at her, glaring.

 

“Burn in hell,” Frisk whispered and Patience slammed the button the remote again. This time, it wasn’t a short, painful shock. She held her button there for a full ten seconds as Frisk shouted words that will not be repeated here.

 

“Wrong, try again. How many monst-”

 

“Fuck you!”

 

ZZZAAAP.

 

“It’s not a hard question. How many monsters did you-”

 

“All of them,”

 

ZZZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPP.

 

“Don’t bullshit me!”

 

“Too bad, because that seems to be all that’s coming out of your mouth.”

 

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAP.

 

“How. Many. Monsters. Did. You. Help.”

 

“...”

 

“Well?!”

 

“Google,”

 

ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAp.

 

“How-”

 

“666,”

 

ZAAAP. ZAP. ZAP. ZAP. ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP.

 

Frisk gasped for breath and coughed, watching as a red liquid dripped from their lips to the floor. The glared up at Patience who only glared back as Frisk spat blood at her. She help up her finger, making dead eye contact with Frisk. Her eyes had turned a steely grey color, reflecting Frisk’s face back at them. Frisk ignored the bruised, and beat up version of themself looking back at them.

 

“Answer. The fucking. Question.” Patience growled.

 

“You know, for someone who’s name is Patience, you don’t have that much of it,” Frisk rasped and a smile graced her lips. 

 

“We both know that’s not my real name, Taylor.” Patience whispered and Frisk smirked.

 

“You guessed wrong again,” Frisk muttered, Patience laughed.

“I’ll get it right one of these days, Frisk.” Patience slammed her finger on the remote and watched as Frisk convulsed in the shocks of electricity. Her eyes glinted brightly in the fluorescent room as Frisk’s vision went black.

 

~~~

 

“So, what is your name?” a girl asked Frisk, who glanced up from their spot on the floor where they’d been scrubbing the floor boards. Frisk glanced at the girl. She was older than them, with longer hair and a pair of electric blue eyes. Maybe 14, possible 15.

 

“Frisk,” Frisk muttered and went back to their cleaning. The girl laughed.

 

“No, I meant your real name,” the girl asked and Frisk looked up at her.

 

“Frisk,” Frisk repeated and she rose an eyebrow.

 

“You’re telling me that somebody out there wrote down the word, ‘Frisk’ on a birth certificate?” she asked and Frisk blinked.

 

“W-Well, no, but-”

 

“Exactly!” the girl cried and smiled broadly at frisk. “So, what’s your real name?” she asked. Frisk sighed.

 

“Look, just because it’s not my birth name, doesn’t make it any less real. My name is Frisk. F-R-I-S-K.” Frisk practically growled. 

The girl sighed. “Fine then, I guess I’ll just have to guess your birth name. Is it… Johnathan?” she asked.

 

“Nope,” Frisk muttered.

 

“Venessa?”

 

“Nuh-uh,” Frisk went back to their chores.

 

“Reginald?”

 

“Not even close,”

 

“Throw me a bone here, at least tell me what letter it starts with,” the girl begged. Frisk sighed.

 

“Fine, It starts with a T,” Frisk whispered. The girl grinned.

 

“Cool. My name’s Patience by the way,” she volunteered. Frisk glanced back up at her.

 

“Is that your real name or just what the boss gave you?” Frisk asked. Patience smirked.

 

“I don’t know, does your real name really start with a T?” she asked. Frisk rose an eyebrow.

 

“That’s for me to know and for you to find out.”

  
  
  
  
  


Chara knew that Toriel had entered the camp fifteen minutes before she got anywhere near the tent. How? You ask? They could sense the momness radiating off of her, as well as hear a large amount of monsters rushing around to bow and get her anything she needed. Needless to say, by the time Toriel did enter Chara’s tent, Chara had already dragged themselves into a sitting position and was pulling on their hiking boots.

 

“My child!” Toriel cried and enveloped Chara in a hug to trump a lifetime of hugs. Chara wasn’t really a touchy feely person, but a hug from Toriel after all of the crazy shit that had been the past week of recovery was enough to make Chara melt.

 

“Mom… I…” Chara whispered and Toriel just squeezed tighter. Chara felt their cheeks light up more than usual as they carefully worked their way out of Toriel’s hug. “I missed you,” Chara muttered quietly. Toriel smiled at Chara. Her large eyes full of tears. Chara tried to ignore the guilt gnawing at their stomach.

 

“Oh, my child, we thought you were dead,” Toriel whispered and enveloped Chara in another bone-crushing hug. 

 

“W-we?” Chara started, but suddenly the tent flap was flung open and Chara was tackled sideways by someone very muscular and very excited.

 

“I THOUGHT YOU HAD DIIIIIIEEEEEED!” the ‘someone’ sobbed violently and Chara stared bewilderedly at the captain of the Royal guard, who was currently wrapped around their torso. 

 

“Er, Undyne. I’m fi-” Chara started.

 

“OH MY GOD WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU! SANS TOLD ME EVERYTHING, HOW IN ALL THE WORLD DID YOU END UP AT THE OMEGA CAMP?! DID THEY CAPTURE YOU?! DID YOU HAVE TO MAKE SOME KIND OF DEADLY ESCAPE?! I’M SORRY! I’M SORRY, I NEVER SHOULD’VE LET YOU OUT OF MY SIGHT! NGAAAAAA!” Undyne sobbed and Chara resisted the urge to laugh. This was, however much she didn’t act like it, the captain of the Royal guard and close family friend. Chara assumed that Undyne probably had felt a little guilty after the whole ordeal, and it was her right to get upset over it. So, ignoring the urge to shove the strong fish lady away, Chara awkwardly pat her on the back.

 

“I’m fine Undyne, and as I’ve already told Sans, I don’t remember  _ how _ I got here,” Chara muttered and Undyne sprang back to her feet. 

 

“Right, but  Sans did also mention you were found with a human medical jacket, and knowing you, you wouldn’t have gotten taken by humans without a fight,” Undyne cheered and Chara swallowed.

 

“Uh… I guess?” Chara muttered, and turned back to Toriel. “So, when are we going back to the Alpha camp?” Chara asked and Toriel sighed.

 

“Right, I forgot tot tell you. Your father and I have decided that it would be best for you to stay back from the front lines for now. It’s safer here, and Dr. Alphys tells me that you’re still recovering from some pretty serious injuries,” Chara stared at Toriel for a solid thirty seconds trying to register what she said.

 

“Uh, your majesty, I think you broke them,” Undyne muttered, waving her hand in front of Chara’s face.

 

“What?!” Chara yelled. Toriel rose her hands in surrender.

 

“Chara, I know that you’re passionate about wanting to be on the front lines, and defending monsters, but I think you have to be thinking about your future right now. Chara, you are your father and I’s last child. If you die… if you die the monster kingdom is without an heir. It’s safer for you to stay here where it’s safe,” toriel explained, but Chara felt like the world was crashing around them.

 

“But… but I… the camps… I-I,” Chara spluttered and Undyne cuffed them affectionately on the shoulder.

 

“Oh relax, it’s not like you’ll be here alone. I’m staying back too, to help train the soldiers here. It could be fun, think of it as you’re helping to train new soldiers. Better?” Undyne gave her most charming smile, showing off her pointed teeth. Chara swallowed the bile in their throat.

 

“O-Okay,” They whispered, and stood on slightly unsteady legs. “But if you’re going back to the Alpha camp without me, tell father that I think that our next move should be taking out the human’s monster camps,” Chara muttered, absent mindedly reaching under the cot and pulling out the human medical jacket. Both Toriel and Undyne eyed the jacket like it was some sort of warning sign, but Chara just slipped it on.

 

“Chara, you’ve only just gotten back, don’t you think It’s a bit early to be talking war strategy?” Toriel asked. Chara shrugged.

  
“Possibly, but being out here… a lot of the monsters in this camp have relatives in those camps, and I don’t want to think about what they’re facing,” of course, Chara had their own private reasons for wanting to attack those camps, but they needed to fully figure that out for themselves before they started badering Toriel about it. What they did know was this: there was someone in those camps that Chara knew. Someone important. They didn’t remember who, they didn’t remember if they were even a monster, but they did remember that they had saved their life after the grenade. So Chara was going to make sure they didn’t die either.


	12. Chapter 12

February, 17, 193X,

 

Chara loved this time of year. Most people didn’t like winter because of the cold, but Chara loved the cold. They loved the cold, the snow, but most of all they loved what winter brought with it. The silence. The silent, still forest, just called to Chara. Silence was good, silence was something Chara found almost impossible to experience, but the silence of winter was always there in the winter. There to remind them that the constant screaming was only in their head.

 

But silence was also a fragile thing, and all it takes to break it, are two very excited monsters trudging through the snow whilst arguing over which one of them could make a better plate of spaghetti.

 

“Look, Papyrus, you wouldn’t even know how to make spaghetti if it weren’t for me, so I think it’s clear who the better cook is!” Undyne cheered, but her skeleton counterpart shook his head in disagreement.

 

“Nyhoo ho hoo, Undyne, for I, the Great Papyrus, have long since then passed you in the cooking department!” the skeleton decreed proudly. Chara felt their eye twitching.

 

“This is literally the stupidest conversation you two have had yet, and that’s saying something,” they grumbled, and  Undyne grinned proudly.

 

“You’re absolutely right, Chara, this conversation  _ is _ stupid! Because my spaghetti is  _ obviously  _ better,” Undyne showed off her teeth to Papyrus.

 

“I think you are mistaken, Undyne. Clearly the human meant that mine was obviously better. Right human?” Papyrus winked at Chara, very obviously, and Chara growled slightly.

 

“Don’t drag me into this!” they yelled and Undyne sent Chara a look. Great, now both monsters were looking at Chara, expecting them to solve the conflict. Chara internally facepalmed, after all these months at being stuck with the two of them on literally every assignment they’d done, Chara was starting to get used to being the tie breaker. They sighed, “Besides, everyone knows that Toriel was the best cook in the underground.”

 

“Right, Ms. Asgore is a wonderful cook,” Papyrus continued cheerfully, and Undyne slowly let the gauntlet go.

 

“Yeah, you remember when we were younger and me and Asriel ate an entire butterscotch-cinnamon pie?” Undyne asked, and Chara pretended not to wince at the name.

 

“Yeah, you both had it all over your faces, and then you tried to blame it on me,” Chara muttered as the trio continued their trek through the woods, as the clouds overhead darkened with the coming night.

 

“Yeah, but to be fair, your face was covered in chocolate,” Undyne pointed out, and Chara rolled their eyes.

 

“True, do you think we should set up camp soon, it looks like it’s almost nightfall,” Chara pointed out, and the Fish lady cast a glance at the sky.

 

“Just a few more minutes, there’s a clearing up ahead that I wanted to check out, a patrol last week found it, and found some artifacts there to suggest that humans had occupied that space,” Undyne explained, and Chara mouthed ‘oh.’

 

“So, that’s why we’re out here, to check out the space and see if we can figure out where the humans went?” they asked. Undyne frowned.

 

“Not exactly, the campsite appears to have been abandoned months ago. Alphys figured out it was occupied just a few days before you were found. So if we’re going to find any clues as to what happened to you between the attack, and your return, we better start there,” Undyne explained and Chara nodded, looking at the trees around them.

 

“How are you guys doing anyway?” Chara asked, and Undyne looked over at them.

 

“Who?” she asked.

 

“You and Alphys, you’ve been dating for almost four months now, right?” Chara asked, and knit their eyebrows. This part of the woods was oddly familiar. Undyne’s cheeks lit up like headlights at Chara’s comment.

 

“W-Well, uh, I’m not sure if y-you’d call it dating,” Undyne stuttered and Chara smirked, raising an eyebrow.

 

“Really? Because I don’t know what else you’d call kissing, and cuddling someone every time you see them. As well as sleeping in the same tent and giving them random gifts,” they pointed out. Undyne’s face was bright red, which was painfully obvious compared to her blue skin.

 

“Shu-shut up,” Undyne grumbled, and Chara laughed softly. Papyrus slowed down so that he could walk the same pace as the other two.

 

“What’s so funny?” Papyrus asked and Chara shook their head.

 

“Not important, just talking about the campsite,” they muttered, and Papyrus grinned.

 

“Yes, the campsite, you know I’ve never been camping before,” Papyrus stated, and Chara tried not to stare. Still, after all these months the skeleton reminded them too much of Asriel.

 

“Heh, it’s alright I guess, but we didn’t bring any s’more stuff, so it could be better,” Papyrus and Undyne both gave Chara a strange look.

 

“What’re s’mores?” Papyrus asked, and Chara opened their mouth to respond, then froze. S’mores? They were almost sure they’d never seen, nor had one in their life, yet… somehow they knew what they were? The heck?

 

“I-It’s when you roast a marshmallow and stick it between two graham crackers with chocolate,” Chara muttered, but their own voice sounded far away, they heard another voice, one much more prominent and gentle echo in their head.

 

_ “You’ve never had s’mores before?” _ the voice asked, they could hear the person it belonged to smiling,  _ “You poor uncultured child.” _ Chara knit their eyebrows. Where had they heard that before? Why did it matter? Their brain was frantically grabbing at the memory that had just surfaced, trying to catch it before it disappeared. Desperately trying to bring back the voice, and the person it belonged to, but it slipped from their grasp, leaving them with only the vaguest feeling of loss.

 

“Is that a human thing?” Undyne asked and Chara shrugged.

 

“I-I guess so, it’s been a while,” Chara muttered distractedly as the trio entered a clearing. The ground was almost even, and the remains of what appeared to be a fire pit stuck up out of the snow. Undyne set down her backpack heavily and turned to the other two troops.

 

“Well, nevermind that, we’ve got a camp to set up. Papyrus, pitch the tent, I’ll go get some firewood. Dreemurr, uncover the fire pit so we can use it, also see if you can scratch up any clues,” Undyne ordered.

 

“Yes, captain Undyne!” Papyrus yelled.

 

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Chara muttered. 

 

Undyne went marching off into the woods, while Papyrus pulled out the tent. Chara squat down next to the fire pit and started to brush away the snow. The firepit looked like it hadn’t been used in months, which would make sense if it was used while Chara was missing. It still tripped Chara up to think it had been five months since they started training soldiers at the omega camp. It still worried them that they couldn’t remember what happened while they were missing. They could’ve been anywhere. Chara’s hand brushed over something plastic and Chara lifted up the object.

 

“Jet-puffed?” Chara read aloud, and frowned. That was some sort of human candy brand, right? Just as Chara was about to throw it to the side, they realized that they recognised something about the bag. Scribbled on the corner of the bag, in black marker, were the initials: FD. Chara frowned, why did they recognize those letters?

 

“Find something?” Papyrus called from across the clearing. Chara glanced over.

 

“Just a long forgotten bag of marshmallows,” Chara muttered, and froze. How did they know it had been marshmallows in the bag, the bag didn’t say that. Or if it did, it had long weathered away. Chara looked back down at the bag and traced their fingers over the initials. Suddenly a memory rushed to their mind, covering their senses.

 

They saw them. The human with the red eyes that mirrored their own, with the skin the color of cocoa. The human with a smile that was more blinding than the sun, and a laugh that made Chara’s heart race with emotions they had long forgotten. They remembered their kind, quiet voice, and their understanding. They remembered the human draping their jacket over Chara’s shoulders, remembered, seeing their eyes for the first time, but for the life of them, there was one, very important thing they couldn’t remember. Their name. Chara was sure it was there, just dancing on the tip of their tongue, but it just would not surface, and Chara was left grasping for straws again.

 

“Human? Human?!” Papyrus was calling, and Chara cast a glance at the skeleton.

 

“S-sorry, I-I zoned out,” they muttered, their voice was embarrassingly shaky.

 

“It’s fine, I was just asking if you and Undyne have know each other before you were both in the Royal Guard,” Pap asked. Chara blinked away the lingering memories that refused to fully show themselves.

 

“Y-Yeah, Undyne used to come by the castle a lot when we were little. Asgore was giving her private lessons on fighting and stuff, so I saw her pretty often. Though, we didn’t talk much, she mostly hung out with my brother,” Chara left out the “because I scared her” part. Papyrus grinned.

 

“That must’ve been awesome! I would’ve loved to have a friend who came around so often when I was younger,” Papyrus cheered, and Chara tilted their head.

 

“What about you, who raised you and your brother?” Chara asked, Papyrus sighed.

 

“I honestly don’t know. As far I knew it was always just me and Sans, but he was an excellent caretaker, even if her was only 7 years older than me,” Pap said, and Chara had a mental image of a 7 year old Sans holding a baby Papyrus.

 

“So… you never knew your parents?” Chara asked, and Pap just shrugged.

 

“I never gave it much thought, although, I did ask Sans one time when I was younger,” Pap paused, as if thinking his next words very carefully. “He told me that our father was the royal scientist before Alphys, but for some reason he refused to tell me his name. Just that he fell into the core, which left Sans alone to take care of me. He never spoke of our mother,” Pap sounded as if he was treading on broken glass. Careful not to cut himself. Chara, however, was not so careful.

 

“W.D. Gaster?” Chara asked, and Papyrus looked up confusedly.

 

“Who?” he asked.

 

“That was the royal scientist before Alphys. Wing Din Gaster, I guess that makes sense, but I didn’t think he had children,” Chara muttered. Papyrus shrugged.

 

“Well, for all I know Sans might’ve just been pulling my leg, but like I said before, I never gave it much thought.” Undyne came back into the clearing carrying a stack of sticks at least half her height.

 

“I think this’ll be enough,” Undyne called and set the sticks down next to the fire pit. Chara began stacking them for a fire. “Find anything?” Undyne asked and Chara handed the fish woman the marshmallow wrapper.

“A candy wrapper?” Undyne questioned.

 

“Marshmallow,” Chara corrected and reached into their pocket for matches.

 

“How is this a clue?” Undyne asked.

 

“It isn’t, besides the fact it helped jog my memory a bit,” Chara answered, lighting a log. Undyne raised her eyebrows.

 

“Well, then spill, Dreemurr, I want to know all the juicy details!” the fish lady cheered. Papyrus sat down beside the two other soldiers, curious. Chara huffed.

 

“I didn’t remember much, but I know I was definitely here,” Chara paused to collect their thoughts. “And I wasn’t alone. I didn’t escape the human camp, I never did. Someone helped me. A… a human who actually sympathized with the monster cause,” Chara drew up their jacket around them.

 

“Those even exist?” Undyne asked, looking surprised.

 

“Apparently, but they all get locked up in the monster camps with the captured monsters for it,” Chara whispered.

 

“What was their name?” Papyrus questioned, and Chara paused, frowning.

 

“I… I can’t remember,” they whispered. “Something with an F.”

 

“Fred?” Undyne offered, and Chara shook their head.

 

“No… it was something weird though, I can’t… my brain appears to enjoy torturing me by holding a single detail away from my grasp.” 

 

Whatever, so you’re telling me that a human, a human who actually sympathized with monsters, helped you back to our camps?” Undyne asked, and Chara nodded.

 

“I-If my memory is correct I wasn’t the first,” Chara whispered. Undyne frowned deeply.

 

“I have mixed feelings about this,” the fish woman muttered darkly, “What else do you remember about this human?”

 

“They… they had red eyes, like me, and a red soul. It was almost scary really, how similar we looked, like you guys probably wouldn’t be able to tell us apart if we were standing right next to each other.” Chara muttered and inwardly cataloged the mental image of the strange human and their beautiful smile.

 

“That’s kinda odd,” Papyrus commented helpfully. Undyne appeared deep in thought.

 

“Yeah, whatever, go to bed you two, I’ll take first watch for tonight,” she muttered, and Chara inwardly cheered that they would not have to endure these two’s awful cooking.

 

“Sounds like a good Idea,” Chara muttered and went into the tent before either of them could comment on dinner.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Frisk had long gotten used to the constant stench of blood. It was always there, always staining their skin and their uniform. It clung to them like a virus, forever reminding them that there was no escape from this hell. Frisk didn’t even know why they kept trying, after however long they’d been stuck here, they should know they weren’t going to get the location of the monster camps. Were they really so desperate they would torture a fifteen year old constantly for a single location? Apparently, the answer was yes.

 

Frisk’s skin was stained black and blue so thoroughly, Frisk couldn’t even remember it’s original color. Their breaths had been struggled and pained so long that they no longer registered the  feeling of someone taking a sledgehammer to their lungs. Frisk had cried all the tears they could every cry, and it left their skin salty with sweat and tears. The cuts on their collar bone and back stung from the salt, but Frisk had long since forgotten how to register it.

 

Frisk thinks there might’ve been a reason not to tell them the location of the camps, long ago, but they had long since forgotten it. Not, it was only out of spite. The numb satisfaction of the frustration that Frisk wouldn’t tell them what they wanted. Frisk could remember the human they had helped back to the camps so long ago. Frisk hoped that they were well. Frisk wished that Chara would forget about them and live a happy life with the monsters.

 

However Frisk doubted that was the case, knowing Chara, they were probably tearing apart the human ranks, and obsessing themselves with ending the war as quickly as possible.  Knowing Chara that plan also included spilling a lot of human blood. For some reason the thought of that particular teen squatted over a map, planning out attacks with an army cap on their head was all too real, and all too ridiculous at the same time. 

 

Frisk lurched to the side as their torturer drove a metal bat into their left temple, sending them spiraling to the floor. Frisk had long since lost track of all the torturers’ names. The human grabbed them by the collar.

 

“This, is your final warning, where. Are. the. Camps.” the man snarled. His breath smelled like garlic. Frisk did not reply, they had long stopped speaking to the tormentors, deciding that silence was the answer to their torment. Frisk didn’t know how long they’d been trapped here, but they knew it had to be at least weeks.

 

“Fine,” the man growled and grabbed Frisk around the neck, slamming them so hard into the wall that Frisk felt another bone in their spine crack. The pain was no longer even registerable. It was like a slight jolt, then it just faded back to join the chorus of other broken body parts.

 

However, the man did not stop there. He dragged Frisk upward until they were eye level and head butted Frisk, hard, then proceeded to body slam them into the floor so hard that the floor shook. Frisk didn’t even whimper. Instead they just closed their tired eyes tighter. The man walked to the door. On his way out, they heard him whisper to the guard at the door, “No food for two weeks, then we’ll see if they’re still not willing to talk.”

 

His footsteps retreated, and two more guards entered the room, and hauled Frisk upward. Frisk just let their body lull in their grip, so that they’d think that they were unconscious.

 

“It still makes me feel sick watching them do that. I know this one did some bad things, but god… they’re just a kid,” one guard whispered to the other.

 

“I know, but all we can do is watch, unless we want to endure that,” the other mumbled. Frisk felt their arms being snapped back into their restraints.

 

“But still… look at them. I can’t even tell if they passed out from the brute force of the beating, or just the fact that they appear not to have any blood left in their body. The kid’s still bleeding from last weeks’ beating.” The guard’s chatter faded as they left the room. Frisk heard the sound of them scooting a glass under the door flap. The guards were okay in Frisk’s eyes. They always made sure to give them at least a biscuit, even if the tormenter said not to, and water was always given on a daily basis, but even so, Frisk was beginning to understand Chara’s hatred for humans.

 

Never, in all their life did they think, this was how it would end. Alone in a room where the only light was from the security camera in the corner, where they could smell and taste their own blood constantly. Never did they think, that the sound of their own sobbing would become a soothing lullaby in the darkness. They had actually forgotten what their own voice sounded like, it had been so long since they’d used it. Frisk pretended not to notice that it getting harder to force their lungs to keep drawing in breath. It felt like it was so long since those days, but Frisk sometimes seriously considered strangling themselves with their shirt.

 

The tears started again, because if there was one thing Frisk wasn’t, it was dehydrated. Cold, hungry, severely lacking in blood, and having actually forgotten what it felt like to not be in pain, sure, but dehydrated, no. That was the one luxury they still had, water.

 

Sometimes, when the guards were feeling generous, they would slip Nyquil into their water, and apparently, this was one of those times, because as soon as Frisk gulped down the cup of water, their felt their eyes getting heavier. Frisk leaned back against the wall, focusing on the soft drone of the air vent. Focused on anything except the silence. The silence that rose to suffocate them.

  
Frisk let their tears run, shame was a long forgotten emotion. There was no shame in crying when you could no longer remember what it felt like to not constantly be damp with tears.


	13. Chapter 13

The sound of metal grinding on the floor was the first thing Frisk heard that morning, and yet the sound tore into their eardrums. One could hardly blame them, though, the teen had grown accustomed to the constant silence of the room they had been kept in. Frisk hadn’t seen another human in such a long time, that they had begun to wonder if they had finally given up on them, and just left them to rot. 

Perhaps that was just wishful thinking. That maybe one day they would just forget about them, forget that they existed and leave Frisk alone to starve to death. No, that was too good to be true, and the moldy biscuits piled in front of the door was proof of that.

Frisk slowly lifted their head to meet the soft green eyes of their visitor, and froze, a choking lump forming in the teen’s throat, as they just stared. Their visitor was tall, no longer a child, with thick curly black hair falling down cocoa shoulders. The soldier wore a simple gray t-shirt and cargo shorts. Their arms bore the scars they had earned as a child, and Frisk could already feel the guilt turning in their chest at the particularly long one on the teen’s upper right arm. Their boots thumped against the floor as they approached Frisk, and undid their restraints. Frisk did not meet their eyes again.

“It’s been a long time. You don’t look so good,” the soldier offered, but Frisk did not answer, not even a grunt of acknowledgment, but unlike the other former housemates of Frisk, this one did not get angry at the lack of response.

“Heh, wow, never thought that… that you’d…” the soldier sent a sympathetic look Frisk’s way, but Frisk just stared at their wrists, and the raw bleeding skin that covered them. The other teen coughed.

“You know you could just tell us, and maybe we could stop. Get you to a proper cell that actually has a bed?” the soldier offered, and Frisk finally met their eyes with their own. Frisk always kept their eyes closed, no one… no one except Chara had ever seen their red eyes, but now Frisk glared with eyes hot like flames. The soldier blinked in surprise.

“Huh… I always thought you’d have brown eyes,” they only muttered thoughtfully. Frisk huffed and bowed their head in defeat. They couldn’t look at that face without feeling guilty. They remembered the child with the pleading eyes and the pained screams. The child that had begged Frisk not to hurt them, but they had anyway. The child that never did anything wrong besides be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and had suffered for that. Frisk felt their hands burning with the faint traces of a belt that hadn’t been there in years. The echoes of the child’s screams echoing in their ears, and the blood that they could remember staining their clothes. The blood that did not belong to them.

The soldier frowned, “Wow you’re really bent on not telling us where those camps are, aren’t you?” they muttered, but Frisk was too far gone in their own regrets and broken memories to register their words. The teen sighed.

“You always did do things for strange reasons. Maybe… maybe I just don’t understand you enough, none of us do. Is that why you won’t tell us? Even back with… with him, you always did the weirdest things and no one knew why, but this… isn’t this a bit too far Frisk?” the soldier asked, and as soon as they used Frisk’s name, the teen reacted instinctively. Jerking sideways, holding their hands above their head to deflect a blow that wasn’t coming, tears springing to their eyes. The teen with the green eyes stared in slight horror.

“Oh, my god… what… what did they even do to you?” they asked barely above a whisper, staring at Frisk with haunted eyes. Frisk’s arms were hardly anything more than skin and bone at this point, the rest of Frisk’s body was likewise. Frisk’s knees pulled to their chest, and they were reduced to a trembling, crying ball. Tears running down a face that was caked in blood stains and dried dust. Sobs that were almost animal came from frisk’s heaving chest, sobs that held no coherent purpose besides fear. No, fear isn’t the right word. All consuming, tearing, and complete horror, now that’s closer, but still can’t begin to describe the massive amounts of panic that Frisk’s mind was experiencing. 

The soldier just stared, helpless, and unsure of what to do with a prisoner who couldn’t even seem to hear their own name without collapsing into a puddle of emotions and animalistic fear. Frisk’s voice came in a scratchy, and completely incoherent noise that definitely was not any type of language that existed. But the sound was enough to make the soldier just stare in horror at this creature that their former housemate had become. 

They remembered Frisk from their childhood. Frisk wasn’t the easiest to understand child, but it was always apparent that they were trying their best to be helpful. The child was quiet, and often times just outright weird, but they had kept up a kind personality. Even after certain… beatings, Frisk was always the first to offer assistance and words of apology for what the man had forced them to do. They had been a strong child, with a determined spirit and a kind heart, but now… now they were a creature made of fear and hurt. A creature with no voice and no feelings. A creature that couldn’t understand the difference between a worried question, and a shout of aggression that would result in a bloody nose.

A whispered word escaped Frisk’s lips, more passing air than an actual sentence, but still, the soldier could make it out. “I’m sorry,” the words came and didn’t stop, repeating over and over and over until it was a silent chant in the once human’s ears. 

“Fr-I mean.. Uh, c’mon, please, just tell me the location of the camps and we can get you into a better situation. Please… you… you don’t really want to die alone in here do you?” the soldier asked, feeling like a weight was dropping in their chest. Frisk did not respond. The whispers went silent, and frisk just sat there, motionless, and unmoving. Finally, the soldier sighed.

“I just don’t get it, why go to all this trouble to keep away the location of camps of the enemy. Frisk… this is war, and in war, we have to do bad things sometimes even if we don’t agree with them. So why… why have you turned against your own kind?” they asked, and were met with only silence. The soldier sighed and stood.

“At least eat something,” they muttered before exiting the room.

 

Frisk sat alone in the darkened room, staring at the closed door.

“Kindness,” they whispered in a voice that cracked and rasped, as if it was fighting its way out, “I’m sorry.” They remembered all those years ago, and the horrible, horrible things they had done. All because they were afraid of a man with hygiene issues and awful hair. They remembered the man’s voice, and his cold, unfeeling eyes.

Frisk was 12 when they met the man. Just like any other twelve-year-old living on the streets, they were hungry, tired, and just really wanted a place to rest that they wouldn’t get jumped in. So when they heard of a man that would provide shelter to children in exchange for work, they rushed off to find him and was greeted with a man with rotting teeth and smelly yellow hair.

“What brings you here child?” he asked in a voice dripping with fake kindness.

“You’ll provide food and shelter for work?” Frisk had asked, a twelve-year-old with bruises and a squeaky voice. They probably didn’t look like much. Too skinny, too short, and too innocent looking, but the man had grinned coldly.

“I’m afraid that is the purpose,” he had said, and Frisk had schooled their face into an expression of neutral interest.

“Then I’d like to join,” was all they had been able to muster before the man tugged them through the doorway. The man had quickly introduced them to the other children. A tall, muscular boy with bright orange boy, and another, shorter one with blonde hair and cold blue eyes. A beautiful girl with light blue eyes, and a taller one who looked like she could kill you with her smile. A boy with thick rimmed purple glasses and purple eyes that were almost glowing. Finally, a small child with short, curly brown hair and wide, frightful green eyes.

It was less than a week that Frisk had learned why the child looked so scared.

In all honesty, it wasn’t really Frisk’s fault, it was Bravery’s, but they weren’t about to tell the boss that, and once they had been strapped to the floor, with their back exposed for the belt to come crashing down on, they finally understood the meaning of the word pain. Pain, wasn’t falling and scraping your knee, pain wasn’t stubbing your toe, or accidentally hitting yourself. Pain was feeling the flesh of your body being carved into by cold metal, pain was being unable to hold back your screams because your body was so overloaded with pain that your brain was shorting you. Pain was having scars on you for the rest of your life, and not just physical ones. Frisk learned to fear the man, and learned why they shouldn’t have joined, and why they should've done it sooner.

People would probably never believe Frisk had ever hurt another soul in their entire life. Especially with their whole belief system about never hurting anyone else and crying when they accidentally stepped on someone’s toe, but that belief and that reaction came from their past. Frisk remembers the one this that the man had drilled into them since they had joined. 

“You hurt someone because they deserved it,” and as far as that man had been concerned, everyone deserved it. Especially, children who made mistakes. Kindness, strapped to the ground, blood and tears running down their face. Frisk had stood over them, and without a single protest, let themselves beat the child. They had let themselves hurt a kid that had done something as small as chipped a plate. Frisk had stood by and not done a thing when Patience had been smacked upside the head for missing a spot with the broom. Frisk hadn’t even raised an eyebrow when Bravery had mysteriously disappeared one night and returned a month later having lost half his body weight. Frisk had stood by, watched, and on occasion, joined in, as their housemates, and the only family they had was beaten and ridiculed. You don’t make a pact not to hurt someone unless you’ve seen what it does to a person. And Frisk knew damn well.

They were 14 when they had decided they had enough. It was simple really, not hard to catch the man unguarded. He trusted his children, he had trained and broken them after all. They didn’t want a beating, and quiet, calm, trusting Frisk was no threat to him. No, the child could barely lift a bucket of water, there was no way he couldn’t overpower them. All it took was one swift jab to the throat with a butter knife. 

Dead, just like that, they were free. Free to do whatever and go wherever, but Frisk still remembered the incident. Remembered the blood that had stained their hands for hours. Remembers the shocked and disturbed expressions of the other children. Staring as their tormentor lay on the floor, in a puddle of his own blood, and the child with the butter knife standing over him. The child with the skinny hands, the all too chubby cheeks, and gentle features. The child in the oversized sweater that fell over their hands and covered most of their shorts underneath. The child with blood on their sleeves. The murderer.

 

 

Sans stared at the map with a sense of dull satisfaction. Finally, after all, these months they had found them. The camps. The camps that the captured monsters were forced to endure, and now. Now they could finally get rid of them. He looked across the table to watch their fellow commanders stare at the map with grim expressions. Well, most of them anyway. A certain human commander looked quite excited about the new find. An evil, killer smile, spread across the kid’s face, and Sans had to suppress a shiver. They had seen that smile a number of times before, and usually, it resulted in a lot of dead bodies. 

“I don’t get why all of you are acting like it’s the end of the world, this is a good thing! We have the locations of the camps, and now we can free all of the captured monsters,” the human exclaimed and exchanged an equally murderous look with the Captain of the Royal guard.

“I’m more concerned a-as to h-how you even got the-these plans,” Alphys muttered from her side of the table and, Aaron, the commander of the delta camp frowned.

“I agree with Alphys, but also...the real question is how we go about this. What’s our plan, can’t just attack all of the camps at once,” he reasoned, and Chara cleared their throat, taking on a calmer persona.

“Right, so we go camp by camp, the closest one is here,” they rested their finger on the camp on the west side.

“Just twenty miles from here, so if we send in the alpha squadron to distract from, here,” the human shifted their finger to the left a few inches, “we can send in the beta to get them out.”

“But, we have to keep up the front lines, we don’t want them to take the main fight to the camps, we must keep a diversion so we won't catch innocent monsters in the crossfire,” the leader of the Epsilon camp interjected. Undyne smiled winningly.

“I know, so here’s the plan. All except three camps will keep up the battle on the main lines, but camps kappa, sigma, and omega will join me in the liberation team. As well as air squad three, we’ll need all the help we can get from our scouts, the camps are heavily guarded, but that should be enough firepower to get through them,” the Captain proposed, and no one argued until Sans stood.

“I want my team in there too,” he offered, and Undyne actually looked surprised.

“Uh… no offense Sans, but no one really even knows what your team does,” Chara offered, and Sans chuckled.

“That’s because my team is secret, but if you want firepower, I’ve got your back,” Chara’s eye twitched slightly.

“What I’m trying to say, is that how do we know that you aren’t just slapping your name on here?” Chara asked and the skeleton chuckled.

“Have a little more faith than that kid, I want the same thing you want, this war to be over. Even if I have to break a couple bones in the process,” Sans commented, and Undyne nodded gravely.

“If you’re sure you’re up for it,” the fish woman muttered, whilst Chara gave Sans their best death glare. Sans wasn’t really sure why he and the human disliked each other so much, Chara got along just fine with Papyrus and Tori, but for some reason just seeing that kid made Sans’ bones rattle.

 

Chara stared at the map with eyes that could only be described as wanting. Their eyes focused on only one thing, the camps. They had to be in there, they just had to. The human being anywhere else just didn’t make sense. Their mind still enjoyed holding some pieces of information from them, but they now remembered enough about the other human that they would just drive themselves crazy if they didn’t meet the kid soon.

They could remember the kid’s laugh like they were laughing in their ear right now. A sound so pure and innocent it made Chara want to believe again. Believe that maybe not all humans were lost. It made Chara want to believe that sometimes good people did exist, but after going through god knows what for seven months the human could hardly be expected to be exactly the same as the had left. Chara knew that at least logically.

However some part of Chara that wasn’t quite as logical was whispering that they wanted Frisk to be just the same. Wanted the same kid that brought marshmallows on a mission into enemy territory to hug them tightly once they met again. They wanted the same kid who gave potentially murderous enemies piggy back rides to laugh and joke with them. They wanted the same child who would risk their lives to help a complete stranger across the country, the same human who would die twenty times over (literally) just so they wouldn’t have to kill a vegetable, to just be there with them.

It hurt to think that a single hair on the kid’s abnormally perfect kid’s head might have become darker, or angrier. It hurt to think that something as pure and gentle as that kid could become even the slightest bit like Chara themselves. So Chara didn’t think about that. Didn’t give the thoughts the chance to manifest, and just let themselves get lost in daydreams that were about as likely to happen as Chara was to grow ears and a tail.

Little did they know that Frisk didn’t have dreams anymore.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk finally gets something they need

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOWDY! I'm so sorry this took so long, but I've been making my transition into high-school, so I haven't been able to write lately, I'm so so so sorry, but here it is. Sorry it took so long, hope you enjoy. -M

It was finally quiet again. Frisk almost couldn’t believe it, but it was. Silent as a stone. Just silence. The silence was good, silence wasn’t screaming.

It had all started with a bang. Quite literally, though that was an understatement. The noise was so loud that Frisk’s ears still rang, the ground shook underneath their body. Dust crumbled from the ceiling. Then, there was the sound of gunshots. It echoed around them, filling every crevice of Frisk's mind. All there was, was the screaming, the gunshots, and the trembling of the building around them. Suddenly Frisk felt as if they were connected to a different time.

 

The loud banging of explosions melted into the sound of punches landing on their skin. The trembling building was the feeling of the cold wall smacking into their face again and again. Frisk let out a guttural scream, clawing at their own skin. Trying desperately to free themselves from arms that weren’t there. Their body throbbed from old bruises and wounds that had never healed properly. Every breath felt hot. The air was too hot, everything was too hot. Frisk was choking, choking on air that was too thick. Suffocating in the heat as they continued to claw at their skin.

 

Now it was silent. Silent like stone. Frisk pressed their knees to their chest, focusing on the soft sound of their own heartbeat. As good as silence was to the screaming, it was still silent. Frisk had grown to hate the silence. No longer drowning in heat that wasn’t there, Frisk found that the silence was almost equally suffocating.

 

Laying their head back, frisk started to puzzle over what had happened. Had they imagined the gun shots? The screams? The ground trembling underneath their body? They had to have, right? It wasn’t possible that the monsters had attacked, that just couldn’t have happened. The location of the camps was the most highly guarded piece of information in human databases. If they monsters were to get their hands on it, they’d have to hack through so many different firewalls and encryptions Frisk felt dizzy just thinking about it.

 

But, what else could have happened? A monster sympathizing group? That was more likely considering that from what Chara had told them monsters had almost no knowledge about modern technology. However, monster sympathizing groups were few and far in between. The ones that had existed were all captured at this point or moved underground. Supporting silently, like shipping weapons, or refusing to send their kids in for military training. There had never been a monster sympathizing group this upfront and obvious. So that left Frisk with the monsters. Was it possible that they had actually managed to find the camps?

 

Frisk’s question was answered with the sound of metal grating against metal. Slowly raising their head they met the eyes of Perseverance, with a gun to his head. Behind Perseverance stood a relatively short creature. Frisk would’ve said dwarvish, if the creature wasn’t so close to their own height. The creature was a skeleton. A skeleton with white pinpricks in his sockets for pupils, and an aviator jacket. His clothes smoked, as if he’d just nearly escaped bursting into flames, but the most interesting thing, was the shit-eating grin spread across the skeleton’s face. Frisk had no idea how a skeleton could smile without muscles, but this one somehow managed it. He paused, as if he hadn’t been expecting to find a human within the cell, then glared at the human in his arms.

 

“I thought, i told you to show me your highest security prisoner,” the skeleton growled. His voice was deep, angry, and demanding. Just the sound of it made Frisk flinch involuntarily. Recoiling into the wall. Their brain immediately started to calculate how much more damage an angry monster could do, as opposed to a human. If the skeleton so desired he could simply rip Frisk’s soul out of their chest and start bashing it into the wall, or something like that. Truth be told Frisk’s memory of their last encounter with monster was hazy at best.

 

“I-I did!” Perseverance shouted Frisk had never heard before from him. He was trembling, eyes flashing pleadingly. The skeleton scoffed.

 

“You’re telling me your highest profile prisoner is a 15-year-old kid, who you clearly haven’t been feeding?” he snarled, and again Frisk flinched at his voice. Perseverance whimpered.

 

“The-they are, I swear! They-they have the location of the monster camps!” Perseverance was all but sobbing at this point. The skeleton spared Frisk another glance, and Frisk flinched under it. The skeleton’s eyes were calculating, glancing over the countless bruises covering Frisk’s skin, and the amount of blood stained on their ratty clothing. 

 

“If you have the location, then why didn’t you attack?” the skeleton growled to Perseverance. The teen’s purple eyes glittered shamefully.

 

“We did-didn’t. They refused to tell us,” he hissed. The skeleton rose an eyebrow, or what Frisk imagined would classify as an eyebrow. Skeleton looked at Frisk again, as if weighing something.

 

“What’s your name kid?” and just like that his voice completely changed. Suddenly it was soft, gentle as if he was scared of startling a wild animal. He dropped Perseverance, and Frisk watched with half-lidded eyes as Perseverance’s soul turned blue and they dropped to the floor.

 

Frisk didn’t answer, just bowing their head as they trembled. The skeleton took a step forward, Frisk jumped backwards, already pressed up against the wall as much as they could be. The smile melted from the skeleton’s face, and so did the forced expression of happiness. Something Frisk didn’t recognise was there instead.

 

“Not much of a talker, are you?” the skeleton asked. Frisk just stared at him from behind their knees. The skeleton took another step forward, and Frisk’s breathing became heavier, they were feeling hot again. Everything was too hot, they were suffocating. Everything was spinning, their head was collapsing. The skeleton stepped back and suddenly it all went back to normal. Frisk regained the ability to breathe. The skeleton frowned.

 

“Okay, got it, you need your space. Didn’t mean to, rattle your bones,” the skeleton commented, and Frisk, frowned, was that… a pun? The skeleton seemed to sense the change in their mood from fear to timid confusion.

 

“The name’s Sans, Sans the skeleton,” Sans introduced, and Frisk was finally able to peek up from their knees. For some reason, monsters were less scary than humans. The skeleton seemed to take this as a good sign and tentatively took another step forward. Frisk realized that he was wearing… slippers? That seemed a bit contradictory to the army uniform.

 

“Can you tell me your name?” the skeleton asked again. Frisk opened their eyes fully so they could see the skeleton better. He looked less threatening suddenly like he was approaching an injured puppy, just trying to get close enough to help, but Frisk still felt their chest tighten when he took another step forward.

 

When frisk spoke their voice cracked in ways Frisk didn’t think were possible, sounding like they had spent several hours swallowing gravel. However, they managed to push the almost forgotten words to their lips. “Fr...,” the syllables didn’t connect properly. Frisk felt dizzy, and their insides threatened to come out their throat if they attempted that again. They couldn’t force the name out. The skeleton nodded as if in understanding.

 

“It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me, I’ll just call you kid for now,” He closed the distance between them, and reached up to undo the restraints.

 

It happened so fast Frisk almost didn’t see it. Didn’t see Perseverance pick up the dropped gun and point it at Sans’ back. Frisk moved faster than they thought possible, shoving Sans to the side with their left leg, as the bullet made contact with the metal directly above their head, splintering. One arm dropped free of the restraint, and Sans reacted faster than Perseverance could. The other human lifted into the air as if he were being suspended by strings. In surpise, he dropped the gun and Sans slammed him into the wall. Frisk watched as Perseverance went limp and felt their heart beat speeding.

 

“Kid,” Sans called, but Frisk couldn’t hear him. They were in a completely different place right then. All they could hear was the slamming of the body on the metal. All they could feel was the sensation of it happening to themselves. Their spine burned, words that they didn’t remember the meaning of were shouted in Frisk's ears, making their head spin. Drowning, Frisk was drowning in their memories, drowning in their own blood and tears, just drowning.

  
  
  


Sans couldn’t help but stare at the poor kid, they sat there, shaking like a leaf and pressed up against the wall so much that part of him feared the kid would crush themselves. Sans had never seen a child this messed up, much less a human child. The mere idea that humans could be cruel enough to do this to their own species made his blood boil. The kid’s knees were pulled over their face again, their single free arm pressed tightly around their knees. 

 

Sans wanted to get closer, wanted to free the kid from their restraints. Wanted to get them the medical attention they clearly needed. The kid was openly bleeding from so many places he wondered how the kid was still alive. Puss filled open wounds that had never been given the chance to heal. The kid was covered in bruises so thoroughly Sans couldn’t even tell the kid’s natural skin color. The kid’s clothes hung over their body like a coat rack, way too big, and showing off the kid’s bones in the places they slipped down. It hurt, it physically hurt to see anyone in such a bad condition.

 

What confused Sans was the fact the kid was human. Surely, a human couldn’t have held out as long as this kid did. If the kid truly did know the location of the monster camps, why didn’t they say anything, especially if this was how badly they were being treated in order to get the information out? Yet, they had stayed silent, hiding the information inside themselves. The human child had kept their secret, and it made Sans’ head spin to see that a human could be so loyal to a cause that had no benefit for them.

 

“Kid,” Sans called again softly, and they didn’t move, still sobbing their eyes out and trembling like a beaten puppy. Slowly, Sans approached the kid again, and they kid didn’t even look up. After undoing the kid’s last restraint, he half expected the kid to turn on him. To start screaming and hitting at him, to attack. Instead the human only curled into a tighter ball. They looked so small, so broken, that it made the skeleton’s non-existent heartbreak. This kid needed someone who could look after them, and Sans knew he wasn’t that person. He wasn’t good with kids, at least, not any kids beside’s Pap. This kid needed someone who knew what they were doing. So, after a split second of mental debate, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his radio, turning it on.

 

“Come in Tori, Come it,” he hissed into the radio. For a moment, just silence, then a voice that definitely did not belong to a certain goat woman appeared.

 

“What do we have here? Sans, are you slacking off again?!” the voice huffed, and Sans suppressed a growl of annoyance, knowing the kid beside them would not react well to that. 

 

“Surprisingly, no, but if you keep pushing me, I might just to spite you,” he grumbled into the mic. He heard a sigh on the other end. “Look, I don’t have time to do this. I need to talk to your mo-”

 

“She’s not here right now,” the voice cut him off and Sans mentally pictured using his powers to tie the kid’s shoelaces together. “But I can take a message.” He could feel the evil grin through the radio.

 

He sighed, “I found this kid at one of the camps, and… they’re human.” He expected a sarcastic remark. He expected a huff followed by, ‘Who cares?!’ He didn’t expect silence. He didn’t expect to hear the sarcastic teenager on the other end speechless for a moment, so he savoured it before continuing. “The kid’s in pretty bad shape, not just physically, and you’re mom’s the best I know with kids so-” the teen interrupted again, but it wasn’t rude this time, more desperate, like their brain was moving faster than their mouth.

 

“What do they look like?” they spat out rapid fire, like a machine gun. Sans didn’t understand but decided to just roll with the kid, having long given up on understanding them.

 

“Uh, shoulder-ish length brown hair, little longer, but I think that’s just mainly to a lack of hygiene. Lot of bruises, short, little nose” Sans glanced down at the kid. The kid had stopped crying and instead was watching him with eyes that glowed red in the dim light. “And red eyes.”

 

He heard a sharp intake of breath on the other side of the radio. “We’ll be on our way.”

 

“We?” Sans questioned, but didn’t get an answered, with a heavy sigh, Sans shoved the radio back into his pocket, before looking back at the kid, who seemed to have calmed down a bit. For a moment they just stared at each other, and Sans just stared at the kid’s eyes. What struck him was they were Chara’s eyes, but without all the anger. The kid looked almost scarily similar to the other, but they had a completely different air about them. Chara pissed him off, even when they didn’t say anything, this kid… this kid made his heart hurt, even though he knew nothing about them, not even their name.

 

“Can you walk, or you need help?” he asked, and the kid blinked as if that hadn’t crossed their mind. Slowly they lifted their shaking hands, and waved them around, for a moment Sans was confused, when he realized that the kid was using sign-language. 

 

“Uh, sorry could you repeat that?” he asked and the kid swallowed, as if speaking this way was painful, it probably was considering their physical state.

 

_ I honestly didn’t think I’d get this far _ , the kid signed, and San’s felt a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.

 

“It’s okay, you look bone tired anyway,” he muttered, and watched as a small smile took over the kid’s face. Their expression of fear and sadness disappeared, replaced by a smile so pure that it made Sans face flush. This was going to be interesting, he decided. Slowly, ever so carefully, Sans bent down to pick up the kid with his arms. The kid was stiff for a few seconds, before wrapping an arm around Sans’ shoulder. It was a bit awkward, considering they were about the same height, but Sans still managed to carry the kid down the stairs to where the rest of the prisoners were being treated. Compared to the kid they all looked great, and carrying a human child so badly beat did not go unnoticed by the other monsters, who just eyed the kid warily as they passed. The kid’s breathing became faster as they continued walking, they sank their fingers into Sans’ jacket, gripping onto it like a lifeline. Finally Sans found an empty room with a bed and lowered the kid onto it, ignoring the restraints also on the bed. For a moment, the kid didn’t let go of Sans, still gripping on like they were scared if they let go that they’d fall, then they let go. Sans’ stood back up and looked at the kid for a moment.

 

“I’ll go get Dr. Alphys, but I’ll be right back, I promise,” he told the child, but the kid just stared at him with begging eyes. As if they were pleading for him not to leave them alone. Sans offered a smile.

 

“Don’t give me that look, I’ll be back in the blink of an eye socket,” he offered and winked, the kid seemed interested in how his facial expression changed, and offered a nervous smile, as Sans exited the room.

  
  
  
  


Chara stared blankly at the wall. After all this time, after all, these months, finally, they had found them. The human, the human with the smile as pure as freshly fallen snow. The human with the laugh that rivaled angels’ singing. The human who had haunted their dreams for the longest time. They had found them, and now… now Chara felt dizzy. Their head was spinning, their lungs felt like they couldn’t get enough air, and their stomach was twisting into knots. So Chara sat there, staring at the wall and waiting for their mother to come home.

 

Their brain was swimming with how Sans had described them. “Lots of bruises, shot, little nose, red eyes.” Chara felt their chest tighten. Bruises, they could only imagine what the other human had gone through all that time in the other camp, but just the thought of someone hurting the other human child made their vision wash red. They wanted to find who had hurt them, and make them Pay.

  
Chara’s brain was all over the place, dancing around and trying to scream out in anticipation, trying to voice the nervousness in their stomach. What if they didn’t remember them? Or what if their memories were different? What if Frisk felt differently about Chara than Chara did of them? And just like that all the questions froze. Frisk? Their brain had finally told them what they wanted to know. The other child’s name. Frisk. F R I S K.  _ Frisk _ . Fri-i-i-isk  **Frisk** . The name oddly suited the human, Chara felt a dopey smile stretch across their face, just as quickly chased away by heat rushing towards their cheeks. Good thing they were alone, because Chara spent the next couple minutes with their face showing emotions they couldn’t name. That dopey smile returned.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one's so short, but y idiotic ass decided to take a college course, so I've got a shit ton of homework to do all the time, which doesn't leave me with that much time to write. On top of that, writer's block is a bitch. Anyhow, enjoy.-M
> 
> Ps. Thanks for all the nice comments, I love talking to you guys!

Frisk was in a coma. That was the only conclusion that made any logical sense. They weren’t in pain, or surrounded by fire so this couldn’t have been hell, but it was lasting too long to just be a dream. Therefore they had to be in a coma. Their body must’ve finally just given up, and now they were stuck in some kind of strange dream where they were rescued by monsters.

 

Either that or they somehow got into heaven. No. That wasn’t possible, people like Frisk didn’t get into heaven. Murderers don’t get to go to heaven. People who deserved every ounce of pain that they experienced did not get to go to heaven. People who had tried to… no. This wasn’t heaven. Frisk didn’t deserve to go there. This was a comatose hallucination.

 

“Kid, you’ve gotta eat something,” the kindly skeleton urged. Frisk just stared at Sans, silent as always, wondering why their mind would choose to torture them with a false sense of security. Their mind knew that this wasn’t possible, that this would never happen, so why did it dream it? Why did it want to hurt itself? 

 

_ I’m not hungry _ , they signed quietly, ignoring how their hands trembled in front of them. The skeleton just sighed.

 

“Look, I’m no expert in human anatomy, but I’m pretty sure that humans need to eat three meals a day, and from what I’ve seen it doesn’t look like you’ve eaten in weeks. Kid, c’mon,” the skeleton pushed the fork towards frisk’s face, and Frisk pressed their face back into the pillow.

 

_ Sans, I’ve tried to tell you. I know your brother means well, but I’m pretty sure his spaghetti isn’t edible,  _ Frisk signed rapid fire, trying not to flinch at the cold pasta in their face. Sans sighed in defeat.

 

“Well, until we get our new shipment of supplies its all we’ve got. All these monsters went through the rations pretty fast,” Sans muttered, finally setting down the fork in defeat. Frisk laughed half-heartedly.

 

_ When is the new ship getting in? _ Frisk asked Sans sighed.

 

“When the rest of the camp squad gets here. Which includes a certain visitor of yours,” Sans offered, leaning back in his chair and closing his eye sockets. Frisk still wasn’t entirely sure how that worked.

 

_ Visitor? _ Frisks hands were shaking less now. Curiosity was the best remedy for being nervous they found. Sans nodded, peeking through one eye socket so that he could still read their signs.

 

“Yup. I called the queen of all monsters a while ago, she’s an old friend of mine, and she and her kid are on their way. The kid seemed oddly excited to see you,” suddenly Frisk felt like their blood was freezing over. The world around them was spinning and the colors were blurring together. A child, a child who was related to royalty of monsters. The heir to the monster throne. Chara? This was definitely a dream.

 

The kid, are they human? Frisk signed, hands shaking again. Sans seemed to notice the shift in Frisk’s mood.

 

“Barely, but yeah. Long story, but the kid fell into the underground when they were, like, nine. I dunno, but apparently they know you. I just mentioned there was a human kid in the camp, and they started freaking out,” Sans was rambling, but Frisk felt themselves tuning out. Their breathing felt like it was getting louder, their heartbeat was pounding in their head. Chara, the word scrawled itself in Frisk’s brain. They couldn’t do it, they couldn’t face them, dream world or not. Chara was a whole other can of worms. Monsters, they could handle that. Other unfriendly humans, they could survive. A human whom they had a little romantic chemistry with months ago, and hadn’t seen since? No. If there was one thing Frisk couldn’t do, it was awkward encounters. Especially when said awkward encounter was a human that already had trouble talking to other humans.

 

“Kid?” Sans asked, and Frisk sent Sans a look of pure panic.

 

_ No,  _ they signed _ , I can’t deal with that right now. Not…. _ they paused their hands shaking so badly that they were sure that Sans couldn’t read the signs. _ Not after all… _ they paused again, gulping in much-needed oxygen. _ All of this. I can’t deal with it all at once. I can’t...  _ Their hands twitched too fast.  _ I can’t... _ they repeated.

 

“Kid,” Sans repeated, his voice stern, but not angry. He sat forward, gently grabbing the kid’s shaking hands. “Calm down, I’m not going to let anyone in you don't want to see. What’s the story with you and Chara anyway?” he asked and Frisk swallowed, trying to calm their mind which was whirling faster than a hurricane. 

 

_ I used to be a medic working on the front line for the human army. While I was working one day I found them on the battlefield and brought them into my tent to tend to their wounds. I then proceeded to help them back to where I knew one of the monster camps was _ , Frisk hated remembering the days leading up to their capture. Yet, they were the most prominent things on their mind. They didn’t want to think about how much of a naive little kid they were all those months ago. They didn’t want to think about how hypocritical they were, how much they had told a complete stranger, how much they had trusted a complete stranger. Frisk didn’t want to acknowledge how they had been a fool, how they had been an idiot. Frisk didn’t want to. Frisk refused to. It hurt, it hurt a lot.

 

Sans stared at Frisk for a moment, as if in complete shock. “It was your jacket,” the skeleton whispered, and Frisk remembered the instance. Frisk remembered wrapping the taller, stubborn, teenager in a jacket. Frisk remembered how the jacket was ever so slightly small on the other human, but still, they insisted on wearing it. How they had caught them sniffing the fabric a few times. They remembered the other human’s bright blush when they saw they had been caught. How they had spluttered for an excuse. Frisk’s chest ached.

 

_ They still have it? I had thought they’d have thrown it away by now, _ Frisk signed. Sans laughed.

 

“Quite the opposite, they refuse to let anyone else touch it, or clean it. Not even Toriel. I always wondered why, guess they liked you,” he commented. Frisk wanted to laugh, but their body wouldn’t let them.

 

Understatement, they thought and looked at the window to their right. The sun was setting in the distance, staining the sky pink and gold. Frisk had almost forgotten what the sunset looked like after being in that room for so long. Frisk wondered how Chara was doing, just because the thought of seeing the other human overwhelmed Frisk didn’t mean they didn’t want to. They had missed Chara, and they were curious to see how they were doing, but their brain was screaming that it could only handle so many things at a time, dream or not. Just dealing with so many different monsters attempting to make them feel better was overwhelming, adding a sarcastic teenager to the mix would just make it worse.

 

“So, is there a specific reason you can’t see them, or don't want to?” Sans asked and Frisk sighed, watching their hands, waiting for them to stop shaking before signing again.

 

_ Too many things at once _ , they answered. Sans nodded.

 

“Gotcha, now get your rest kid, It's going to be a long day tomorrow,” Sans stood, patting Frisk on the head before exiting the room, leaving Frisk to their own devices.

  
  
  


Chara was ready to football check everyone out of their way. There were too many monsters, too many families hugging each other, just holding on and crying their eyes out. There were too many people happy to have their family back together. Too many people who got to have their family back together. Too many people who stood between them and Frisk.

 

“Chara, slow down!” Toriel called, but Chara was already running ahead, their feet dodging around countless, faceless, nameless monsters. Chara could practically feel how close they were getting to it. So close to getting all the answers to the three days of their life that had been missing for so long. So close that they could practically feel the world humming with energy. It was late morning, around ten, but Chara didn’t care. They were close, and that was all that mattered.

 

“Whoa, there,” Chara froze, stuck in place by a pulsing blue magic Chara was getting used to being trapped in at this point. They stood in front of a door, a door they probably would’ve passed if Sans weren’t standing in front of it. The skeleton was lounging on the doorframe like he’d been waiting for them to walk by, heck knowing sans he probably was. “Walking a little fast aren’t we?” the skeleton was so annoyingly smug about it. Chara glared at him.

 

“Where are they!” they snapped, not having any patience for him at the moment. Sans rose his brow.

 

“What’s with the attitude? You’re even more annoying than normal today,” he asked, and Chara imagined they could burn holes in his skull with their eyes.

 

“Drop the act, skele-ass! I just want to see them,” they growled, and Sans shook his head.

 

“Ultimately it’s the kid’s decision if they want to see you or not,” Sans muttered and Chara was 90% sure they were spitting sparks at this point.

 

“Well, then ask them!” they snapped, and the skeleton shook his head again, he seemed to be taking pleasure in Chara’s frustration.

 

“The kid’s asleep, and I learned the hard way it’s usually not a good idea to interrupt them when they’re sleeping,” Sans suggested, and Chara’s eye twitched, but they were already backing off, if Frisk needed time, they could give them time. There was no telling what they’d been through over the past seven months, they could let them get a little more comfortable before they started talking their ear off.

 

“How are they doing?” Chara asked, sighing in defeat. Sans released them upon the sigh.

 

“They’ve been better, but they’re a strong kid. It’s more the emotional state I’m worried about,” Sans answered, and Chara chewed on their bottom lip.

  
“That’s why you called my mom,” Chara muttered, staring at the door behind Sans. They were literally feet from them not. They were literally so close, and yet they had to give Frisk space, had to give them time. Chara had to believe that Frisk was going to be okay. They had to wait. Chara hated waiting.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So existential crises are a thing, and they suck. Therefore, we're going to be dealing with those, and we shall be somehow adding those into our writing because this is our coping strategy. yay. -M

It started in the pit of their stomach, and slowly spread across the rest of their body, choking, consuming, absorbing. Everything was black, all direction just black, black as night and ink on paper. Nothing, they couldn’t see, couldn’t feel, couldn’t hear. Silence, the silence was back and so suffocating. Frisk tried to move, to scream, to do anything, but there was nothing except the darkness.

 

Was this it? Had the dream ended? Had they died? Was this hell? To suffer endlessly in darkness where no one would ever hear or see them? It seemed fitting, to just leave Frisk alone in the thing they feared most. Abandoned. Forgotten. Alone.

 

The silence was consuming every part of Frisk’s mind, there was no way to think, to hear, they couldn’t even feel their body. Just endless darkness, and abandonment. There was no heart to speed up. No lungs to gulp in oxygen. No skin to sweat. No hands to pinch themselves. Nothing. Just silence, dead silence and darkness. There was no pinprick of red light from a security camera. No throbbing of a million left over wounds. No chaffing of invisible cuffs.

 

Frisk wanted to cry, wanted to scream, they wanted the pain. They wanted to feel the pain of the wounds if for no other reason than to prove they were alive. To prove that they had existed.

 

Nothing.

 

Darkness.

 

Silence.

 

No feeling.

 

No thoughts.

 

No control.

 

Silence.

 

Darkness.

 

Nothing.

  
  


Frisk sat bolt upright, gripping the covers of their bed and letting out a scream from a broken voice. The sound was so pitiful and shattering, and it was music to Frisk’s ears. No silence, never again. Silence was suffocating, silence was endless, silence was gripping them by the back of the throat. The door to the room slammed open in the same instant, a familiar skeleton charging in with a glowing blue eye.

 

“What happened?!” he shouted, but Frisk just sat there, trying to register what had just happened. A dream? A dream within a dream? But that had been so surreal. Was it possible that… no. This was a dream, and nothing more, they would never escape their cell. This was just a dream.

 

Sans seemed to understand it was a dream and slowly relaxed, sitting beside the small human gently.

“You okay?” he asked softly, Frisk shook their head, staring at their clenched fingers. They wouldn’t become unclenched from the sheet. Everything seemed frozen. Silent, aside from their own steady breathing. Frisk hated the silence. A choked, broken noise broke it, and Frisk knit their eyebrows, unable to identify it. The sound rung in their ears, repeating itself until Frisk realized it was coming from their chest. The sound was breathy and wet, their vision blurred and something hot slid over their skin. Sobs, broken, empty sobs escaped Frisk’s throat. Their hands didn’t unclench from their place in the sheets. Their eyes didn’t move from the wall. Tears fell unchecked down unmoving cheeks and sobs escaped lips that wouldn’t tremble. Everything was so terrible and consumingly numb. Their hands didn’t sting, there was no pain in the muscles that tensed. No sting from bruises that had been there days ago. Nothing. No pain. Frisk found it hard to move. It felt so alien, so… empty. Not being in pain. 

 

Sans carefully placed his hand on Frisk’s. Frisk flinched at the sudden contact. Cold, his hand felt so out of place from their skin. They couldn’t feel anything except the coldness of his skeletal fingers on their skin. 

 

“Tori got here last night, she was able to heal the last of your injuries,” Sans’ voice was like heaven on Frisk’s untouched eardrums. Smooth and deep like honey, it was interesting to hear without the slight ring from being constantly hit over the head. Frisk let their eyes move from the wall to look at Sans. Seeing with both eyes, imagine that. It was so strange and yet so familiar that Frisk felt the start of tears again. Their hands moved on their own curling themselves to Frisk’s chest in an almost protective way.

 

“She’s probably going to want to see you after that scream, you probably woke half the camp,” Sans muttered, Frisk swallowed guiltily and forced their frozen hands to move.

 

_ Did I wake you? _ They asked, hoping that Sans wouldn’t be mad.

 

“Me? Nah, I don’t sleep much,” Sans said and leaned back in his seat. Frisk inspected him closer, it was harder to tell, because he wasn’t human, but the rings under his eyes and the tenseness in his shoulders told a story that almost matched his words too well. Insomnia. Frisk frowned, their brain immediately started to run treatments and remedies. They frowned.

 

_ You’re not a doctor anymore, you’re not responsible for this, you shouldn’t _ \- they cut off their own train of thought. Taking a deep breath. The patter of quiet footsteps was heard, and the door creaked open. A creature that looked somewhat goatlike stood in the doorway. Though, her face was kinder than any goat Frisk had seen. Soft-looking white fur covered her head to toe, and a purple dress. The woman’s whole atmosphere just seemed to radiate the word ‘mother’ like she had written it on her forehead. Frisk felt themselves involuntarily relax.

 

“Is everything alright in here?” the woman asked, and Frisk watched from the corner of their eye as Sans, face took on a sudden blue quality it hadn’t had earlier. Their lips twitched, was he blushing?

 

“Yeah, Tori, kid just had a nightmare,” Sans muttered, and the woman, Tori, looked at Frisk who was watching her with slightly frightened eyes. Their fingers twitched nervously.

 

“Are you alright, my child?” she asked, and Frisk swallowed the lump forming in their throat. Frisk didn’t remember their own mother, but they suspected that this woman was similar.

 

_ A little… _ Frisk stopped, how did they explain how they felt right now? There was no sign to describe it really. No words either. Nervous? Not exactly, jumpy? That didn’t explain enough. Just… empty. No words could express their emotions currently. The woman frowned and quietly made her way to sit on the bed beside Frisk. Frisk felt the mattress dip with her added weight.

 

“How old are you my child?” she asked and Frisk tried not to wince. No one had called frisk child except  _ him _ , and Frisk really didn’t want to think about  _ him _ right now. That man wasn’t a monster, they saw that now. He was a demon.

 

_ 15 _ , they signed, watching their fingers shake in front of them. They frowned, were they still fifteen? How long had they been trapped here? Were they sixteen now? They felt their brain swirl with questions on what they’d missed while being here. ‘Tori’ smiled.

 

“Fifteen? Interesting, my own child is sixteen,” the woman muttered, and Frisk found that they could feel their heart beating again at the mention of Chara. They looked up to meet the woman’s eyes. She smiled warmly as Frisk did so, then frowned. “How are you feeling, my child? You were very injured when I arrived,” Frisk found the genuine concern in her voice shocking, just as they had with the other monsters that had attempted to head them. Why were monsters so concerned about frisk’s health? They were a stranger at best, a human at worst. Why would any monster be concerned with the health of their enemies? It just blew Frisk’s mind. 

 

_ I’m fine, just surprised me a bit when I woke up, _ Frisk signed, their hands trembled less this time. The sound of the door bursting open for the second time that morning made Frisk jump. A very familiar face made their entire body freeze. Chara Dreemurr. Chara dreemurr in all their red eyed, angry faced, messy haired, half asleep glory.

 

“Wha-happened?!?!” the half asleep human muttered, looking like they may fall over at any second. Despite the circumstances and the initial nervousness of this encounter, Frisk couldn’t stop the giggle from escaping their lips at their old friend’s appearance. Frisk clamped a hand over their face in surprise, it’d been so long since they’d laughed it still startled them sometimes.

 

“Chara, be more quiet. You’ll wake the entire camp,” Mrs. Tori chastised, and Chara shrugged sheepishly, their eyes were fighting off the sleep in them. Frisk just stared at Chara for a moment. Their insides felt like a pretzel, twisting and turning as they tried to figure out if they were ready to speak with Chara yet. Part of them said yes, the other part said no, and that they should run. Chara’s eyes didn’t stray from Frisk’s own, as if they were searching for something, finally Sans’ spoke shattering the staring contest.

 

“Kid, you want me to get rid of ‘em or…?” Chara sent Sans a glared, and Frisk slowly turned their gaze to Sans, contemplating their own answer. Finally they rose their hands from where they had been squeezing each other.

 

_ Can I talk to them alone? _ They had to have this conversation, if for nothing other than closure. If for nothing other than to look into Chara’s eyes and tell them that they needed time. If for nothing other than to figure out if this really was a dream or not. That answer apparently surprised Sans, because he cast a glance between the two of them.

 

“You sure?” he asked, and Frisk nodded, carefully folding their hands on their lap. Sans nodded, and gestured ‘Tori’ out.

  
  
  
  


“You hurt a single hair on their head and you’re dead,” Sans growled in Chara’s ear as he passed by. Chara felt their own stomach drop more than they thought it was possible for it to. They were already nervous enough, comments like that didn’t help much. They didn’t really know why they were nervous. This was frisk, and they were finally so close to getting all the answers, they were almost excited, but just looking at the other human child, they felt their heart squeeze. 

 

Their eyes were so… empty, something they never would’ve described the other child as before. Frisk was always so.. There. So real and alive and there. Kind eyes, a genuine smile, and soft features. Some things that had reminded Chara of a certain monster. Now, their eyes were empty, their mouth was curved in a way that suggested they had forgotten how to smile altogether. Their face was sharper from lack of food, and their skin was paler from lack of sun. They were so different, and so the same that Chara felt like they were having vertigo. The door closed quietly behind them, and for a moment Chara and Frisk just stared at each other as if they didn’t know how to react. Finally Frisk pat the bed beside them, gesturing for Chara to sit. Chara slowly made their way over, the silence between the two was deafening, tense.

 

“You look… tired…” Chara muttered, trying to break the silence. Frisk’s lips pulled upward in the ghost of a smile, amusement glittering in the deepest parts of their eyes. Chara felt their heart get tighter. They remembered how Frisk’s smiles used to light up the entire world, now they were strained and dim. It felt like someone had just stolen something very important from them. 

 

Their hands moved very quickly, making signs and signals too fast for Chara to get any sort of meaning from them, and it took Chara a moment to realize Frisk was using sign language. Chara frowned, they didn’t know sign language. 

 

“Uh… sorry.. I don’t,” they tried to explain and Frisk seemed to realize this, and they frowned, as if they were trying to figure out a complicated math problem. Then, with what looked like great difficulty, they watched the smaller human open their lips and force out something.

 

“Y-You… d-o...ont loo-ook much bet-ter,” Chara’s heart broke. Frisk looked as if they were in intense pain, balling the bed sheets in their hands, their teeth gritted together. Their face was screwed up in an expression of agony as they forced broken sylables from their lips. Frisk’s voice was broken and hoarse from lack of use. Their entire body was shaking from the strain of a few words. Chara resisted the urge to cry. Frisk could do enough of that for themselves. Chara stood, and without thinking, yanked a pen from their pocket, and searched through the drawers of the medical cabinets in the room for a pen.

 

“You sound like a dying whale, here,” Chara threw the resulting pad of paper and pen at the other human, who let a genuine smile cross their face in response. The pain they had seen moments before disappeared as they scribbled on the paper for a couple seconds. Chara flopped back down next to them. Their skin felt cold to the touch, as if they had lost some of their body heat over the past couple months. Chara felt their throat and chest contorting. What had they done to Frisk? How had they screwed up a literal ray of sunlight so badly that the poor kid couldn’t even speak?!

 

Frisk showed the notepad to Chara.  _ How long has it been?  _ Chara attempted not to snort. Frisk had the handwriting of an over excited five year old. 

 

“About… seven months,” they replied quietly, watching Frisk’s face for a reaction. The other human frowned, their eyebrows knit together.

 

_ I’ve been trapped here for seven months? How did you find the camps? _ Frisk’s handwriting got a little neater with each sentence, as if they were remembering how to shape letters properly.

 

“Long story short, our royal scientist invented this program called mettaton to aid us in battle, and he was able to hack the program to get the information. He’s kinda a jerk, but useful,” Chara muttered, not even thinking twice about telling Frisk highly confidential things. Not even their own mother knew about Mettaton, but for some reason they couldn’t force themselves to lie to Frisk. Especially when they were looking at them with those big puppy eyes that practically screamed that they needed a hug. Frisk nodded in response, licking their lips nervously.

 

_ You got taller _ , they scribbled, and Chara felt a laugh bubble up in their chest.

 

“Or maybe you got shorter, you’re so tiny how do you even see from under those covers,” they teased, and watched as Frisk’s mouth curled into a genuine smile. The same genuine smile they remembered seeing all those months ago. The same one that lit up the whole world.

 

_ I’m not tiny, you’re just freakishly tall, _ they wrote. Chara rolled their eyes and held up their hand, palm out to Frisk.

 

“Give me your hand,” they instructed, curious, Frisk lifted their hand to rest it in Chara’s. Chara tried not to think about how their hand felt soft, and strangely warm despite the initial coldness of the rest of Frisk’s body. Instead they positioned the hands to that they were matching position, and bent their fingers down over Frisk’s, smirking. “Tiny.”

 

Frisk pouted, and jotted down with their free hand. Chara, rose an eyebrow, they had been writing with their other one before.  _ Shut up _ . Their hand writing was just as neat as before.

 

“You’re ambidextrous?” they asked, without thinking. Frisk blinked as if they hadn’t realized that they had just changed hands, and shrugged. Chara smiled. “Cool.”

 

Frisk sighed, as if something were bothering them, they watched Chara for a few moments, and Chara found themselves wishing they could read Frisk’s mind right then, that they could understand what Frisk was thinking. They wished they could just hug them and everything go back to how it had been in those three days all those months ago. But they couldn’t. And Frisk...

 

_ I… I’m not the same person I was all those months ago Chara. I’m hurt, broken and I don’t know what to do. I… I don’t know how to react to anything . How to talk to you, or Sans, ot anyone. Everyone’s trying to help me and I can’t even tell if this is a dream or not and I’m scared. I’m _ \- Frisk’s mind was moving faster than the pen on the paper ever could. Their eyes had taken on a distant quality to them that Chara couldn’t recognize. What they could recognize were the tears in their eyes, and they immediately pulled the smaller human into a hug. Trying not to dwell too much on those words. 

 

“I can’t even tell if this is a dream or not,” the words came in gasped whispers from Frisk’s lips. Chara gripped onto them tighter, trying not to let Frisk see how badly those words hurt. How much their heart was shattering, crumbling to dust in Frisk’s fingertips. Frisk’s face was red as tears slid down cheeks that had already bared witness to so many. Frisk’s eyes stayed trained on the paper, even as Chara pulled the smaller human into their chest.

  
“I’m real,” Chara whispered softly in frisk’s ear, trying to figure out some way to prove it. To prove to Frisk that this wasn’t a dream. That they had escaped whatever hell those humans had dragged them into. Chara tried not let let themselves crumble. Tried not to let frisk know how they could see that Frisk wasn’t okay. How they weren’t going to be okay for a long time. Chara tried not to think about how they might never be okay again. “I’m real,” they promised.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some calm stuff after all the angst

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Howdy! So long story short, high school sucks ass, writer's block is a bitch, and anxiety is going to be the death of me. Sorry, this took so freaking long, and honestly, I'm more disappointed in myself than anything else. So, here I present to you, chapter 17. After all the angst we've been dealing with I decided to give you guys some fluff, as well as some plot. I know, right? Plot? OOOOooooOOOOH! Anyways, see y'all later!-M

There was nothing other than the quiet sound of someone’s fingers typing away at a keyboard. The sound just filled the room, slowly tapping away at Sans patience as he watched the doctor work. He didn’t move, hardly dared to breathe, but he could feel the patience being drained from his soul almost as slowly as the progress was. Alphys’ claws flew over the keyboard at a speed that would’ve impressed most people, just yellow blurs in the dim lighting of the computer screen. 

 

“Anything?” Sans finally growled, unable to stifle the comment any longer. Alphys shook her head disapprovingly.

 

“It’s like they knew we’d be looking for  _ him. _ There’s nothing on here,” she hissed. Sans watched the lizard woman suck on her bottom lip, her eyes darted across the computer screen. He let out a curse.

 

“Why are humans so damn crafty!” he sat down on the bench beside Alphys with a heavy thud, trying not to let his eye flare up. Alphys sighed, watching as the computer screen morphed as more and more lines of endless text appears.

 

“Don’t give up yet, there’s still thousands of files to go through,” She reminded him, and gestured to the file cabinets behind them. Sans only offered a huff of exhaustion.

 

“We’ve been at this for days Alphys,” Sans whispered, sending her a tired look, “If there was anything, we’d have found it by now.” Alphys only gave him a determined look.

 

“I’m not giving up until we’ve read every file in this building,” She growled, and Sans only sighed, wiping sweat from his brow.

 

“What’re we even supposed to do if we do find anything?” he asked, staring at the file cabinets. Sans heard the lizard woman give an audible sigh, the quiet patter of the keyboard slowly dying off.

 

“We go after _ him _ . If  _ he’s _ still alive, then it’s safe to assume that  _ he’s _ still doing his experiments, and we both know that the humans in the world wouldn’t be able to stop  _ him _ .” She muttered, a dark undertone seeping through her gritted teeth. Her dark eyes burning holes into the computer screen.  Sans sent her a grim look.

 

“Then what makes you think we could?” he asks and Alphys turned her molten eyes on him.

 

“ _ He _ made you and don’t you dare even try to pull the wall over my eyes, Sans Gaster. I know you’re more powerful then the king and queen combined,” her voice was heavy with hostility and Sans had to resist the urge to wince.

 

“You think _ he _ ’d give  _ his _ creations even a fraction of  _ his _ own power? You think  _ he’d _ be stupid enough to make anything even close to  _ him _ ?  _ He _ knows that _ he _ created something with a free will that could potentially turn on  _ him _ one day, why do you think I only have 1hp?!” Sans felt his voice rising, but he couldn’t force it to die off. Couldn’t force himself to contain the rage that had been burning inside of him ever since  _ he _ had fallen into the core. Alphys pressed her lips into a straight line.

 

“I know sans, I know _ he _ wasn’t an idiot, we both do, but I also know, that if you can’t stop  _ him _ … we’re all going to die.” Her eyes had taken a lost look to them that Sans knew all too well. Letting a sigh escape, he dropped his shoulders.

 

“I know…” the air hung silent for a couple minutes, both of them lost in rotten memories of a monster that made their blood boil. “Set mettaton on the computer and help me look through the files.” Sans finally broke the tense silence, and walked over to the file cabinets, ripping it open.

  
  
  


Frisk felt like their throat was going to explode. Their breath came in heated gasps, as they tried desperately to get oxygen back into their lungs, but the world was a living blur. Everything around Frisk just continued on, continued moving and changing and living without them, and that's when they lose it. They scream, crying themselves hoarse from a throat that had spent too long without use. The world didn’t acknowledge their panicked cries for help, nothing changed, just endless calls of help into a void that wasn’t going to call back.

 

“Frisk! Frisk!” a voice yelled, and Frisk sat up with the speed on a viper, nearly knocking heads with the other human who was leaned over them. They blinked rapidly, trying to take in their surroundings. It’s all still so blurry, so hard to make out. The other human’s face is familiar, they know that but they can’t place it, can't place anything, it’s all just spiraling, spinning, swimming out of control.

 

“Please,” they manage to choke out, and suddenly there are arms around them. Everything keeps spinning, the void is screaming, crying in frisk’s ears, begging for its prize that it had now lost. Frisk can feel the walls closing in on them, wrapping them up tightly, and cutting off their flow of air. Everything is turning cold and hot, both at the same time, coming to choke them, and they squirm in the world’s hold.

 

“Please,” they beg again, unable to force out any more words. The arms around them release them, and Frisk finds that their eyes are open, but their eyes won’t settle on anything. They won’t take anything in, it’s just an expanse of color that is meaningless.

 

“Frisk, breathe, breathe,” the voice they heard when they woke up insists, and frisk suddenly remembers they have lungs. The air is cold and stings at first, frisk coughs, and hands are carefully rubbing their back as they force air into their lungs. Slowly, the world swims back into focus. It no longer feels like the world is trying to choke them alive. 

 

The room is just as they left it. Mostly empty aside from the bed, nightstand, and cabinets stacked against the wall opposite the window. It’s early morning, the sun just beginning to stream in through the window, and washing their companion in a pool of gold. Chara is seated right beside them on the bed, looking nearly as panicked as Frisk had felt, and with their hair sticking in all directions. Their eyes are blown wide as they grip onto their arms. Frisk swallows dryly and tries to choke out a question.

 

“Wh-what..” their voice cracks badly and Chara winces at the sound. Frisk tries to get a handle on their racing heart beat.

 

“You were screaming in your sleep,” Chara’s voice is quieter than Frisk has ever heard it like they fear they’ll break them from speaking too loud. “Then when you woke up you started to panic, and then you started thrashing a-and…” Chara has to stop, their own voice is cracking with badly hidden emotion. Frisk tries not to notice, but everything hurts a bit too much right now for them not to.

 

Chara composes themself and finishes, “Your eyes were completely unfocused, and you weren’t breathing like… like you didn’t remember how. Then you started trying to beat me and, I just… are you okay?” Chara places a hand on Frisk’s shoulder, and Frisk is reminded of how this had been the complete opposite way when they had last met. How Frisk was the one confronting Chara about nightmares, and not Chara was trying to do the same for Frisk. Frisk decided that Chara was better at it.

 

“No…” frisk whispers and Chara nods, carefully pulling them closer.

 

“Okay,” they answer and just hold them for a minute, and Frisk wishes vaguely that it could be under any circumstances. That Chara could be smiling and laughing with them instead of holding them as they struggle to hold back tears. Frisk can’t find it in themself to speak. Can’t find it in themself to spill to Chara the details of the dreams that would likely follow their sleep for the rest of their life. Chara’s the one who breaks the silence.

 

“Did I ever tell you about the Underground?” they ask, and Frisk shakes their head, finding the comment a bit random. They can feel Chara smile softly behind them. “I think you would’ve liked the underground, it seems like your sort of place. I first fell down in this one part of the Underground called the ruins. My brother and I used to play around there a lot when we were little, always pretending to be the warring kings of humans and Monsters. I won most of the time,” Chara bragged and Frisk turned to face them. Chara’s face looked distant, and a bit sad, but there was a smile that Frisk didn’t think they’d ever seen on Chara’s face before.

 

“Then, at the end of the Ruins, there was a place called Snowdin, and despite the fact we were underground, it was always snowy there. Which is a bit weird in hindsight I guess, but I never really questioned it while living there,” Frisk found the soft pattern in Chara’s voice soothing for some reason, and slowly let their muscles relax. Chara seemed to take this as encouragement. 

 

“Then, there was Waterfall, which you could probably guess, had a lot of waterfalls. Also, it had this cave where there were stones on the ceiling that glowed like thousands of stars had been trapped in them. There was this old statue there with a music box in it, it would play it whenever you stopped the water that was flowing on it. Sometimes Asriel would stand under it just so we could listen to the music,” Chara snickered, “He never figured out that you could just put an umbrella on it.”

 

Frisk found that the longer Chara talked, the less they felt like the world was going to fall out underneath them. Chara rubbed circles into Frisk’s hands absent-mindedly. They were still smiling, but the look in their eyes was as distant as the rising sun which stained their face gold and turned their red eyes into a warm pink.

 

“After Waterfall, there was Hotland, which, like the name states, was a hot land,” Chara muttered, and Frisk let a chuckle escape their lips. Chara looked back over at them and smiled. Their eyes slowly refocusing. “And Hotland led to the capital, where my dad was always bouncing between there and our home in the ruins.” Chara reached up to brush a strand of hair out of their eyes.

 

“I think you would’ve like the underground,” they declared again, and Frisk smiled lightly.

 

“Me too…” Frisk coughed out.Chara’s smile became softer like they were afraid that showing their teeth might scare Frisk away.

 

“You’ve been talking more lately, guess that means you’re feeling a little better?” their question was gentle, trying not to prod. Frisk knew that Chara would probably deny it, but they could be quite sweet when they wanted too.

 

“Maybe..” they answered, trying to keep it to one word, that hurt less than full sentences. Chara nodded and looked down at their uniform. They sighed.

 

“We’re going to be moving in a couple days to attack another monster cap. Do you want to come with us or go back with the other refugees?” Chara asked, sounding the most resigned Frisk had ever heard them. Frisk frowned, wishing not for the first time that they could read Chara’s mind.

  
  


Chara hated asking that question. When Sans told them they were moving, they had nearly smacked him right then and there. Sans was lazy to the point of being plain stupid sometimes. And that included waiting to the very last minute to warn them that they were going to move camps. Chara quietly seethed over that as Frisk seemed to chew on the question for a moment. Chara studied their face. Frisk had become so good at concealing their emotions that Chara was at a complete loss as for what to do to make the decision easier. Before Chara could choke out any half-thought through words that would’ve, no doubt, confused frisk further; they received their answer.

 

Frisk pointed a finger directly at Chara’s chest, and for a moment they didn’t understand. 

 

“Wha-” they started to ask, and Frisk simply poked their chest. They rose an eyebrow, until they understood, and instead felt their face flush.

 

“You want to stay with me?” Chara asked, trying not to meet Frisk’s eyes. Frisk nodded, and Chara’s cheeks just flushed further. “Are you sure? It might get a bit crazy in the next couple ones, we don’t have the element of surprise anymore,” Chara tried to remind Frisk, but Frisk just shook their head and poked them again. 

 

Chara let the smile they had been holding back spread across their face. A small laugh following it, “okay, okay you’ve made your point clear, now stop poking me! I’m ticklish,” they knew the moment they said that that they were doomed. A grin that looked eviler than Chara ever thought Frisk would be capable of found it’s way across their face.

 

“Wait! No-!” they called out, trying to get up from the bed, but Frisk already had them. Wrapping their arms tightly around Chara’s back and digging their fingers into Chara’s sides. Chara burst into laughter. Loud, unchecked, wild laughter that seemed to fill the whole room. Frisk was laughing too, but not as loud as Chara was. Chara squirmed, trying to get away from the merciless tickling of the younger child, but Frisk just continued tickling. 

 

“S-Stop!” Chara choked out between laughs, trying to twist around and get Frisk back. They dug their own fingers into frisk’s sides, only to meet a smirk at the lack of reaction. Chara pouted. “No fair! You’re not ticklish!” they complained, and Frisk just giggled slightly, resting their head on Chara’s shoulder.

 

Chara’s face erupted red as in that moment the door burst open, their mother walking in just in time to catch the two leaned together as they sat on the bed, “U-Uh hi mom…” Chara stuttered out helplessly. Toriel just smiled in that knowing way of hers that told Chara that she knew more than she was letting on.

 

“Morning Chara, hello Frisk, how are we doing this morning?” Toriel responded, setting down a pie on Frisk’s nightstand. Frisk sat up slowly and signed something that Chara couldn’t understand. Toriel nodded, and looked over at Chara, frowning slightly.

 

“Did you stay here all night?” she asked, and the red in Chara's cheeks got twice as prominent. 

 

“I-I uh… I just… I…” Chara spluttered for an excuse, and Frisk sent them an amused look. Toriel rose an eyebrow but didn’t make another comment on it.

 

“Moving along, did you make a decision on whether or not you’ll be going with the refugees?” she asked, and again Frisk responded in sign language, leaving Chara in the dark. Toriel looked surprised but nodded. “If that’s what you wish,” she answered. Chara sent Frisk a blank look for help, but Frisk was staring at the sunrise now.

 

Toriel stood, “I’ll leave you two to it, but I advise you get up and get changed soon, we start packing around noon,” she said, before staring out the door. As soon as the door closed, Frisk visibly relaxed. Chara knit their eyebrows.

 

“You don’t look so good,” they commented softly, and Frisk gave Chara a sad look.

 

“Never…” they rasped and paused, as if searching for the right words, “had a… mom…” their voice sounded ten times sadder on the word mom. Chara visibly deflated at those words.

 

“Oh,” they whispered, and fixed Frisk with a sad look, “yeah, I guess that is uncomfortable. I was the same way when I first met Toriel.” They tried to reassure Frisk, but frisk just looked mildly concerned now, they were staring at the pie on the nightstand. They picked it up and stared for a moment like they didn’t know what it was.

 

“Pie… breakfast…” they whispered as if someone had just handed them a complicated math problem to solve. Chara couldn’t stifle their laughter until it was too late and they were sprawled out on the floor laughing, having fallen off of the bed. Frisk was giving them a strange look.

 

“I-I’m sorry just…” they attempted to catch their breath from the laughter that ripped through their chest. “Your reaction was pure gold.” Frisk seemed to understand what they meant and blushed slightly. 

  
Chara stood, brushing themselves off. “Well, while you finish you ‘Pie breakfast’ I’m going to go get changed. We’ve got a long day of packing ahead of us.”


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> OOOOH BOY

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, I've got absolutely no excuse. So, I'll just come outright ant say it, I'm an idiot loser who took all honors courses (big mistake) and as this happened, i just kinda lost interest in this story. Heck, i lost interest in Undertale all together. I started to focus solely on school, and personal stuff that I just never got around to this, but seeing all you guys' comments, I found my inspiration. I found why I had started all of this in the forst place. So, I'm happy to say I actually have a destination for this fic now. I make no promises about updates, just as I can, but, consider this one, a Christmas present to you guys for helping me rekindle my passion for writing. 
> 
> And if you don't celebrate Christmas, happy whatever. Hanukkah, Quanta, Winter break, Winter Solstice, doesn't matter. This is my present to you.  
> -Miranda

It was a beautiful morning. Really, it’s not every day you can see the sun’s rays dancing across the mountains like that. Turning snow capped peaks gold, and staining the clouds orange against the blue expanse. And it reflected wonderfully in Chara’s eyes.

The red sphere’s glittered beneath their bangs as their backpack nearly capsized and crushed the taller human beneath it. Chara, knit their brows in concentration and stuck their tongue out as they attempted to find their footing again.

“Fun?” Frisk questioned with a smirk, only to be met with a hot glare. Molten eyes reflecting the sun, and totally ruining the intended effect.

“Shut up, okay, I’d like to see you carry three different backpacks full of supplies!” Chara shot back, steadying themselves against the complex’s outer wall. 

Frisk rolled their eyes, reaching their hands out, gesturing towards the bags balanced on Chara’s broad shoulders, “Give.”

“No!” Chara exclaimed loudly, and crashed face first into the dirt, sending bugs and Moldsmalls flying in many directions. Frisk rolled their eyes again, taking one of the bags from Chara’s shoulders before they could protest.

“You, hurt-” Frisk muttered, voice cracking where a ‘will’ should’ve been, and Frisk’s throat caught on the word ‘yourself’, unwilling to let it out. The smaller human retched, pressing a hand to their throat, as their body trembled. Chara was on their feet again in a flash, bags forgotten as they reached out to catch Frisk before they fell.

“You’re the one that’s hurting themselves!” Chara chastised, but there was no real bite in their words. Frisk could see it in their sunset eyes. Sad as they were, they also held a sense of compassion that Frisk had nearly forgotten about.

“Sor-ry.” Frisk rasped out, ignoring the sting in their throat. Chara sighed, and slowly straightened Frisk back up. Frisk leaned a tired head on the tired human before they could pull away.

“Don’t apologize, it’s not your fault what they did to you.” Chara grumbled into Frisk’s ear. Frisk shivered just thinking about it, the beatings, the cries, screaming, blood, hot, heavy breathing; and the sound of nothing but the air vent were all still so fresh in their mind.

“I-I could-” Frisk started, but Chara interrupted.

“No you couldn’t’ve Frisk, trust me. Please, don’t blame yourself for getting yourself beat up, please.” Chara’s voice was soft now, almost wounded. Frisk finally lifted their head to look up into the taller human’s eyes. The red mirrors were tired and lost. Frisk couldn’t bare to stare for too long.

Frisk couldn’t find words, so instead they just held onto Chara again. The other human was so much taller than themselves, they must’ve always been, but right now the height difference just made Frisk feel smaller. Weak, small, insignificant, why did they matter in this big, war? Why did their life matter in the grand scheme of things? Chara was the heir to the Monster throne, and what was Frisk? An orphan medic who had violated their Hippocratic oath before they even started the job.

Insignifigant, but Chara didn’t need to know that, didn’t need to know any of that. Chara needed to focus on the war, on making sure their people survived.

“Let’s go to mom.” Chara whispered gently, guiding the shorter human through the cluster of monsters to find Toriel. Frisk didn’t miss how tightly they hung onto their hand like they were afraid of letting go.

  
  


It all started with a phone call. A phone call can go bad in a lot of ways, it could be the IRS telling you to PAY YOUR FUCKING TAXES. Or it could be an ex-lover calling to get back together, a breakup, or the call that tells you your loved one is gone. 

Just an empty, monotone voice over the line, softly explaining how they died, and slowly you feel your will to go on leaving your body. Everything fades to background noise and suddenly you’ve been thrust onto a stage, naked and alone.

This is that phone call. Unexpected and sudden, leeching all feeling from your body until you’re just a shell, a skeleton. It comes right after they’ve started moving, Sans’ Walkie Talkie explodes into a symphony of noise. Screams, shouts, moans, cries of pain. All the noise is accompanied by sickening static that just makes it all the much worse.

“SANS! SANS DO YOU COPY!” the voice screams over the other noise. The chaos is just that. Noise. Empty background noise that interrupts everything.

Sans freezes, Chara and Alphys are beside him before he can pull the contraption from its holster. They recognize the voice.

“U-U-Undyne?” Alphys’s voice is scarcely a whisper. A soft whimper of horror as the screams get softer, and the moans get louder. Undyne is breathing heavily, Sans can almost feel it down his neck.

“CoolFish: I copy.” he hisses into the receiver. Chara’s face is a shadow in the sunlight. The teen’s eyes like flames as they stare at the walkie-talkie, like a cat watching its prey. Somehow this doesn’t surprise sans. Papyrus rushes over, probably recognizing the voice of his commander.

“OH THANK ASGORE! SANS, IT WAS A TRAP! THE HUMANS KNEW WE WERE COMING!” Undyne’s voice gets louder and more distressed as the screams are all but echoes in the radio at this point.

“How could they have known? We didn’t talk about that attack with anyone outside of the council?!” Chara growled, their hands balling into fists at their sides.

“A spy?” Alphys questioned. Sans didn’t answer, instead, he just waited. Waited with baited breath as Undyne’s breathing started to calm on the other side of the receiver.

“I-I don’t know, but… we’ve lost an entire camp.” Undyne’s voice was quickly losing the panicked energy it had started with, turning to a tired fear. The kind that comes when you know it’s too late, but your instincts still tell you to run, to scream, to cry for help that can’t and won't come.

“WHAT?!” Chara shouted over the radio before Sans could speak. “UnDYNE wHAT hAPpENED, noW!” Undyne’s voice was quiet for a moment, just static coming over the receiver for an awful thirty seconds.

“They melted…” Undyne’s voice was a strange sort of monotone now. The sound almost as empty as the static. Alphys turned a sickly pale color, her eyes dilating to pinpricks. Chara’s eyebrows knit in confusion, and Papyrus just stared at the floor with a sort of vacantness in his expression that Sans had never seen before.

“Could you elaborate a bit more than that.” Sans whispered in a deep baritone. The receiver crackled like it was dying. Undyne’s voice mirrored it.

“The humans got some new kind of weapon, I dunno what, but the moment they fired ‘em it was game over. They all just… melted, screaming, crying, begging for them to stop, but they wouldn't. They just kept going, and I couldn’t do anything and I-” Alphys left. Tearing away from the huddle and after Frisk and Toriel in the distance. Her scales the color of an old sheet.

“Undyne,” Chara’s voice was icely calm now, “what about you, are you okay? Any survivors?” their eyes had some kind of dark gleam surface in them. Red eyes glowing in the shadows of their bangs.

“I… I’m okay?” it was a question instead of an answer. “I-I’m not melting if that’s what you’re asking, I almost did but…. I don’t know. Some part of me just.. Refused? Does that make any sense? I don’t think so, but no. I’m alive, and not melting, but I feel…. Taller?” Undyne’s line went silent for a minute, then a sigh came back over, “As for survivors, the waterboy. That’s it. That’s literally it, I tried… I looked everywhere… but they’re gone. They’re all gone… and it was on my command.”

No one spoke after that. No one dared break the silence that settled over the group like a heavy blanket. Chara’s eyes glinted, Papyrus’ face remained empty, Sans stared at the receiver with vacant eyes, just staring at the blinking object like it was a bad prank. 

Undyne didn’t answer again, just hung up the line. Leaving them without even the background static to lift the deafening stillness. 

  
Chara was the first to move, standing suddenly and stomping away from the group, eyes disappearing beneath bangs. “I need a drink.” was all they said.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chara deals with the bombshell dropped on them after the last chapter. Frisk deals with the ghosts of their imprisonment.

Frisk watched helplessly as Chara continued their brooding session beside them on the trail. Monsters all around laughed, and whispered excitedly, seemingly oblivious to the angry teenager behind them. Frisk had no idea what could’ve happened within ten minutes to turn the Chara that they had gotten used to seeing back into the broody teenager they had met in the tent all of those months ago.

 

Toriel was far ahead, engaged in quiet conversation with Sans, which the skeleton had labeled as “confidential” before sending the younger human away. Chara had since joined them, pouting and fuming like a cat that had been forced into a costume. The taller human’s face was a shadow in the sunlight, and their hands clenched so tightly at their sides Frisk fears they’d break them.

 

The silence was unbearable. Frisk still stood by the statement that silence was suffocating, and Chara was just further proving their point by becoming a vocal stone. Face set straight ahead, focused on Toriel and Sans like they held all of the world’s secrets. Frisk felt like the silence was infecting them, making their throat tighten and contort as they focused on walking. 

 

Now that was something. Being able to use their own legs without being punched to the ground or slammed into a wall. The ability to freely step as they chose. It felt so alien, and yet Frisk loved every second of it. Silence be damned, just feeling the sunlight on their skin was pure heaven. It could only be better if someone would stop being McEdgy over there.

 

“Duck,” Frisk muttered at last and Chara blinked, turning to them like they’d just been awoken from a sleep.

 

“What?” they asked, only to be smacked in the face with a tree branch. 

 

“Duck,” Frisk repeated and stifled a laugh, but the smile still spread across their face. Chara lowered their head, looking a little less grumpy and more annoyed.

 

“Really?” Chara asked and Frisk rose their hands in surrender, but the smile didn’t die on their face. “Real mature Frisk,” Chara muttered and looked back to Toriel and Sans who were still engaged in grim conversation.

 

“Grumpy.” frisk commented and tapped Chara on the nose. Chara glared down at Frisk.

 

“Not now, Frisk,” Chara grumbled and turned their face back towards Sans and Toriel. Frisk frowned, what had happened? Chara had disappeared after noticing Sans had gotten a call, only to return with all of the monsters involved in the call looking grim. Alphys was nowhere to seen after running off looking paler than a sheet of paper, and Papyrus now lurked at the back of the monster group in a very un-Papyrus like way. The taller skeleton actually had his head bowed and appeared to be sulking.

 

What could’ve possibly happened to turn even papyrus into a sulking machine? Frisk looked back at Chara who had returned to staring daggers into Sans’ back. Frisk sighed loudly. “What-” Frisk started, but Chara interrupted.

 

“You don’t need to know,” their tone was something Frisk hadn’t heard since the pair had first met. Hostile and guarded, her red eyes completely hidden in shadow as the older human stuffed their hands into their pockets violently. Frisk narrowed their eyes, determined to figure out what had Chara so mad.

 

“Chara, wh-” they were interrupted again by Chara snapping to the side. Red eyes oozing hostility and towering over Frisk in a way that made the shorter human’s blood run cold. 

 

“You don’t need to know, and that’s final!” Chara shouted, hands balled into fists at their sides and their blazing eyes were consuming Frisk. 

 

The air was suddenly hot, thick and so ungodly hot it scorched Frisk's lungs. Chara’s blazing eyes turning to the unforgiving harsh red glow of the security camera. Their wrists chafed, the air was too hot, their body ached with bruises and cuts that had long since vanished. The world burned dark like someone had dropped ink in water, turning the daylight to night. Chara’s towering figure became that of a man.

 

Frisk gasped for air and felt the ground leave their feet as they were dragged up to face the human. The walls were closing in on them, suffocating the smaller human. Cold, the walls were so cold, the air was so hot, the human’s face was so angry, and every bone in their body burned with pain. Agony reaching up to drown them in the deepest parts of it.

  
  


“Shit.” Chara cried, grabbing Frisk before they could collapse completely to the ground. They should’ve known better, should’ve been more careful. What were they thinking snapping at Frisk like that? Sure, things had gotten bad, and an entire camp of monsters was dead aside from (arguably) the closest friend they had, but Chara still had no right to snap at Frisk like that when they were still recovering from whatever hell the Humans had dragged the smaller teen into.

 

Frisk’s eyes were wide open but seemed to start straight through Chara as they gasped for air, clutching onto the front of Chara’s shirt like it was a lifeline. Chara felt their chest constrict, they’d done this. They’d set off a kind of panic attack for the smaller human, surrounded by monsters, in the middle of nowhere. Great fucking job.

 

Slowly, Chara carried the smaller human out of the flow of monsters, and carefully set frisk down under a tree, but the human still stared straight through Chara, as if they had ceased to exist. The thought alone sent shivers up Chara’s spine, but watching Frisk clutch onto them, whimpering and crying was enough to make their heart clench in their chest.

 

“Frisk, Frisk c’mon, I’m sorry.” they whispered to the shorter human, gently rubbing their back, and hoping that would bring them back somehow.

 

Even now there were still signs of the trauma that those humans had inflicted on Frisk. After nearly a week of physical recovery, and the help of the monster’s healing powers, Frisk still had the scars to prove the experience. The scars to mark the event forever in Frisk’s history. Chara couldn’t help but stare at the large scars that peeked out from the collar of Frisk’s borrowed Monster Uniform. It was one of the smallest sizes they had, and it still hung off of Frisk’s skeletal frame. 

 

Chara remembered seeing a photograph once, from what humans called the Freudian war. They remembered seeing photographs of children who had been hiding from the soldiers after they had been found and liberated. They remembered their sunken faces, and how the skin had clung to their bone like it would somehow save it. Chara now looked at Frisk’s starved and sun bare body, remembering the faces of those children. 

 

Frisk cried out, burying their face in Chara’s chest, and the taller human felt a strangled cry leave their own throat. One of hurt, that someone could do this to their own species, how someone could do this to their own species. It still hurt so badly to see the aftermath of it.

 

“It’s okay, no one’s gonna hurt you, I promise. No one will hurt you.”

Frisk could barely breathe, the walls were so tight around them. The man’s hold was strangling, closing so tightly around their throat that they were sure they could feel the tendons snapping. A strangled scream didn’t make it past the hand crushing their windpipe, and they prayed, just prayed to whatever powers that existed that it would end soon, that this endless cycle of torment would die with them.

 

“Breathe Frisk, just breathe,” a gentle voice reminded them and suddenly Frisk was sitting on the ground, the hand crushing their windpipe a ghost on the breeze, as gentle hands rubbed circles into their back. Frisk tried to focus their eyes, but all they could see was a meaningless expanse of color.

 

“Breathe,” the voice reminded again and Frisk choked on their own spit, drawing in gasps of cool air, the suffocating heat had disappeared, replaced by the gentle warmth of Chara’s body against theirs. Slowly their eyes focused again, and frisk stared at the face of their taller human companion. Chara let out a sigh of relief, settling back on their knees and giving space to breathe.

 

“Better?” they asked, and frisk didn’t miss the shake in the taller human’s voice. Frisk brought their legs to their chest, and wrapped their arms around them, just focusing on their breathing. Chara watched the younger teens hands tremble as they clasped onto each other, and felt the guilt come up to swallow their heart, but before they could breathe the start of an apology, Frisk looked back up at them.

 

“Don’t.”

 

“What do you mean, ‘Don’t’!” Chara interjected, but Frisk just gave them that sad look.

 

“A-apologize.” their voice cracked in a million different ways with just that simple word.

 

“apolo-apol-I..” Chara spluttered, and Frisk smiled sadly. 

 

“You don’t need to,” they whispered in a breath. Chara was so confused.

 

“I-but Frisk, It was my fault. Wha-what am I supposed to do if not apologize?!” Chara was frustrated, why did interacting with other people have to be so hard?!

 

“Explain,” Frisk said simply, and Chara felt their chest tighten at the word, with what Chara had just seen they didn’t know if they’d be able to handle having to explain to frisk why they had been so grumpy. They visibly deflated.

 

“Frisk… I don’t know where to start…” they said, at last, shattering the frosty silence between them. Frisk didn’t break their gaze from Chara’s, only reaching out one trembling hand to rest it on Chara’s.

 

“From where you left,” frisk didn’t seem to mind that their voice was cracking in a thousand different ways from a strangled voice. Chara let out a loud sigh.

 

“Fine, Sans got a call from Undyne…”

  
  
  


Toriel stared at Sans with eyes that screamed horror and grim realization.

 

“No matter what we do, we won’t be able to stand against those weapons the humans have created.” Sans finished darkly, unable to look the queen in the face again.

 

“Do we have any idea of what those weapons are made of?” she asked, and Sans shook his head grimly.

 

“All we know is that they were powerful enough to decimate an entire camp of monsters,” his voice was gruff, deep and growling, like a baritone saxophone that hadn’t been tuned in a long time. 

 

“Any survivors?” Toriel asked hopelessly, the melancholy tones of her voice a flute in contrast to Sans.

 

“Undyne, but that’s all we know of.” 

 

Toriel let out a mournful sigh, staring at the packed dirt that they stepped over. “Sans, do you promise not to judge me too harshly for what I am about to say?” she asked softly, and Sans was left with the realization of how tired the queen was. A boss-monster who had lost a child, and lived in a loveless marriage. He could hardly imagine what carrying all of that on your shoulders must feel like.

 

“Of course Tori, you’ve gotta be kid-ding me,” he said and Toriel sent him a soft snort of laughter.

 

“You and your jokes.” She murmured, and watched as a child ran by to catch up with its mother, and Sans could see the pang of sadness in the goat woman’s eyes. “It’s times like this when it all goes wrong, I wonder if this war is really worth it?” Sans could feel his ribcage tighten. “I know that we have no choice, that it was the humans that attacked us, but I don’t agree with my… Husband… there must be some other solution to this than violence.” She sounded so tired, so very tired.

  
“I know Tori,” Sans said, at last, staring at the road that spread out ahead. “I know.”


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Undyne's plight, and Chara's discovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No excuses... hope you enjoy... I'm really sorry and I promise nothing.

Everything was utter chaos. The crashing of human machinery, the roar of thunder overhead, and the awful screams of monsters collapsing into puddles of melted dust. And pain, pain like she’d never experienced before.

 

The world was cracking open beneath her and she was powerless to stop it. Powerless to stop the carnage around her as more and more cries turned quiet. Permanently silenced by the horrible whirring mechanical drone. A sound that would certainly haunt Undyne’s dreams forevermore. It was awful and ear piercing noise, like forks on ceramic, but it was nothing compared to the awful aching pain running through Undyne’s body.

 

Aching and tearing and burning all at once. Her body was splitting apart on an atomic level. Warping and spinning and she couldn’t tell up from down. The aching agony just got worse as the mechanical whirring got louder and louder. A crescendo of agony coursing through the soldier's veins as her own cry of agony joined the dying chorus of monsters. Dying, dying, dying. Everything was dying, her people, her army, and their desperate cries turned to dust. She screamed, slamming fists into the dirt.

 

The sound wasn’t that of fists on dirt. It was more of a wet  _ spluch _ . She couldn’t see. She couldn’t see. Blinded by agony and it only got worse drowning out her weak cries for some sort of relief. This couldn’t be it. This couldn’t be her end. Her destiny? To die here? Alone? In a field among dozens of other soldiers whose lives had been taken much too soon? No. She refused. Refused to go out like this, in a torrent of endless agony. She would get revenge for every last soldier that died today because she wouldn’t. She refused.

 

A quiet, pounding started in her chest, growing. Louder and louder until it drowned out the sound of the Humans’ machines. A cry, not of agony, but of war, made its way to her throat. She could feel the dwindling heartbeats of her comrades. Fading and fading, and with every one that blinked out, Undyne felt her own heartbeat grow stronger. With fury. With vengeance. With rage. With

 

“Justice!” She sprang upward, over the little cover she’d manage to crawl to. The human army had already begun its retreat, victorious, having wiped out an entire legion of monsters who lay in a melted puddle of dust for them to leave tire tracks on. The new human weapons were beacons of a horrible blinding red light. The kind of color that stays behind your eyelids for days. Undyne could still see it in the rising sunlight, blocking out the sun in all its intensity. 

  
She roared in outrage, the remains of her comrades clung to her boots as she charged forwards with the power of a speeding train. The ground trembled in her wake, human machines shaking in their metal hulls as she approached. Humans cried out in alarm, but their cries only fueled her rage. Everything was awash with the red light from human weapons pointed back at her. Her insides were turning to jelly, her body was melting before her eyes, but with a final roar of pure, white, hot anger a rain of scorching blue spears rained down from the heavens.

 

The screams of the humans were music to Undyne’s ears, the red cut off abruptly with the sound of shattering glass and she surged forwards, brandishing her own glowing blue spear in the torrent of chaos.

  
  


It was about a full hour before the rest of the human army had retreated too far for Undyne to follow. Leaving her standing in a wide puddle that was all that remained of her former comrades. She stood, an iridescent blue glow surrounding her, and with one final roar of agony, fell to her knees. Nothing moved, nothing spoke. Even the wind seemed to have stopped, leaving Undyne to suffer alone with only her own labored breaths as a companion. Here and there a dark red stain spread across the otherwise white liquid, like oil on water. The red stained Undyne’s fingers and her armor was heavy with the stench of death. Undyne had always wished to be able to prove herself in combat, but not like this. Never like this. Combat had been a solace for the young Undyne. The little girl who had no friends other than her training dummy. Now, Undyne knew what she had truly pulled herself into.

 

War was not what she had wanted. War was screams and blood and the taste of dust in her mouth. War was the stench of gunpowder and shaking hands on weapons that did so little damage to the enemy. War was not what she had thought it was. War was not a place to prove your worth. War was a place where either you died or watched you spirit wash away.

 

She screamed again, slamming down on all fours against the soggy hillside. Her tears smoldered down her cheeks to mix with it. She could hardly breathe, her armor was heavy and hot, but she refused to move. She refused to leave the hillside. This was where she would remain for an eternity, she thought, this was where she deserved to remain.

 

The humans had come from seemingly nowhere, emerging from the rocky outcrop behind their installment in the early hours of morning when everyone was asleep. They had brandished canons of red light that turned any close by monster into a puddle. Undyne had watched as husbands and wives died, screaming each other's names. She’d watched Whimsums who had just learned to fight for themselves fall to the ground. She’d just watched when monsters she’d known all her life crumbled next to her. She honestly didn’t know how she survived.

 

Maybe she hadn’t, and this was simply some sort of hallucination she was having after death. Undyne looked around again. Smoke rose from burned out human machines, into the sunrise which stained the hillside gold. Human blood sparkled orange Undyne stood on shaking legs and stumbled to a patch of empty grass to empty the contents of her stomach. Breathing was still difficult and Undyne soon found herself shedding articles of armor only to crash onto the grass afterward. Her body was slick with sweat and blood which had somehow made it through her armor to stain her shirt underneath, however, Undyne was struck with one final thing.

 

This was not her body. Her body was ripped and muscular with smooth, scaly skin and scars from countless battles she’d forgotten. This body was a quarter meter taller and with skin unmarred other than where a few lucky humans had gotten in a hit or two. Her skin was no longer smooth, but rough like a shark’s a deeper shade of blue like she’d been thrown into a tanning booth. She looked down at her hands to find her nails had turned black and sharpened like claws. Finally, Undyne reached up to where her missing eye had been, only to find nothing there. Her fingers passed through air until they grazed her eye sockets and she pulled them away, shocked.

 

That didn’t particularly help her breathing. Her chest rose and fell in rapid motions that most would consider hysterical. Undyne glanced back down at the armor she’d shed, already knowing it wouldn’t be the same one she had put on when the attack began. The metal was polished, gleaming silver and white with a golden heart painted on the chest plate. Undyen felt like she was going to be sick again. What had happened to her?

 

Somehow, the same horrible thing that had destroyed so very many monsters had changed her. She pressed her palm against the earth to try and ground herself when she heard a distant crackle.

 

The sound was so sudden she already had a spear in hand and was aiming when she realized what it was. A radio that was half smashed lay in the pool that had once been some monster, crackling faintly as it hung onto its wires by a single thread. Taking deep, heaving breaths Undyne crawled towards it. Finally, she pulled it out of the puddle, careful not to disturb it too much. She cradled the radio like a baby, too scared to let it go. Too scared to get rid of her one form of communication she had. The only testimony the entire monster race would have for years to come rested in her arms like a bad memory. All that remained of hundreds of dead monsters. She felt her breath coming in short, desperate gasps.

 

The radio was dying, spluttering and would probably survive only for one last call so she had to choose carefully. She could call Asgore, probably should considering he was the big man in charge, however, she felt herself changing the dial without thinking. She called the person instinctively, not because she thought they had anything to gain from the information, but because she could only think of the person who she desperately wanted to hear the voice of.

 

“Alphys. Alphys,” she whispered into the radio desperately. There was no answer, just an empty, dead static. She waited, yearning, begging for a reply. There was nothing. Just static. Undyne heaved another breath. The radio was still live, she turned the dial again, trying the next person they wished they could speak to. 

 

“Papyrus...please…” no answer again. The radio spluttered weakly. Undyne trembled. Her hands spun the dial desperately. Trying to find someone, anyone. She couldn’t take the idea she was surrounded alone in the silence.

 

“Chara!” Undyne yelled into the radio. It sparked unhelpfully.

 

“Toriel!” Nothing.

 

“Asgore!” silence.

 

“Napstablook!” Static.

 

“SANS!” Undyne finally shouted, desperate. “SANS, DO YOU COPY?!” static. Empty static. Swallowing her despair she reached to turn the dial once again.

 

“Coolfish, I copy.” the deep baritone of Sans blocked out the static and almost brought a sob to Undyne’s lips.

  
  


~

  
  


Chara’s hands ghosted over their jacket. They had set up camp for the night just an hour ago, but they were already struggling with the urge to be doing something, anything. The camp was mostly silent, other than the quiet rustle of monsters speaking in close quarters. Monsters would only begin their usual night time hustle and bustle around nine o’clock as Chara remembered, but Frisk seemed mesmerized by every little aspect of the monster camp. When Chara had thrown down the tent only for it to assemble itself they’d thought that Frisk was going to explode. The look of wonder alone on their face was almost enough to cheer them up.

 

Almost. However excited or mesmerized Frisk could act Chara doubted that would take their thoughts off of what they’d heard that day. An entire camp destroyed. Hundreds of monsters, dead just like that, leaving only one known survivor. Chara didn’t know if they were more disturbed that, that could have happened under the command of the most capable person they knew, or by the fact, they felt nothing.

 

They didn’t feel a horrible hole of loss like they should have, they didn’t even feel an impending sense of doom that they’d meet the same fate as the murdered encampment did. They simply felt nothing. They stared at the tent in mild discomfort.

 

Frisk didn’t look terribly fazed either and hadn’t even after they’d told them what had happened, so maybe it was just a human thing? Or it was just the fact that Frisk didn’t know any of the monsters who were there and didn’t really have anything to lose. They had grown significantly quieter since that discussion so maybe they were grieving in some way. Chara, however, just couldn’t find any sort of grief in their stomach. Where sorrow or loss should’ve been was instead rage. A horrible bubbling feeling that made Chara just as uneasy was the initial numbness. 

 

“Frisk?” Chara called finally, trying to get their mind to focus on something, anything else. Frisk’s head popped in from the tent flap, where they’d been, no doubt, watching as monsters got the fire started for the cooking later that night. Their eyes were wide with wonder and they grinned at Chara with the widest smile they’d seen on their face since they’d been reunited.

 

“They’re doing fire magic!” Frisk whisper yelled like a child who’d seen Santa in the middle of the night. Chara immediately lost any nerve they might’ve had to talk about their suspicious lack of emotions.

 

“Yeah, that’s how most monsters cook their food,” Chara muttered, flashing their own smile. Frisk’s already large eyes widened more in wonder. Chara was struck with how beautifully deep and dark they were, like the rich and heavy wine their parents would drink when they were still a young child. 

 

“Do you guys even have, like, stoves and stuff, or is everything just magicked?” Frisk asked in wonder. Chara almost laughed.

 

“First off, I don’t think that ‘magic-ked’ is a real word,” they watched as Frisks face turned into an almost adorable pout. “Second off, yes they do. Not all monsters have fire magic, and those that do only share their talents when necessary.” Frisk nodded, creeping further into the tent to sit down next to Chara.

 

“What about other machines, like washing machines, or dishwashers?” Frisk asked and Chara blinked. They honestly couldn’t remember ever seeing a washing machine underground in their life. But there had to be some, considering they’d worn the same clothes more than once.

 

“Yeah, they have them,” Chara answered, hoping the fact they were guessing wasn’t obvious. Frisk didn’t look concerned, in fact, they looked rather curious.

 

“Where do monsters get their electricity from then? Because I think it’d be kinda hard to build a powerplant underground?” Frisk questioned. Chara smiled.

 

“Yeah, it would. Remember when I told you about Hotland?” Chara watched as Frisk nodded, curling their legs beneath them like some sort of cat. “Well Hotland has this thing called the Core in it, I can’t quite remember who made-wait no!” Chara cut off their own sentence, watching Frisk’s puzzled expression.

 

“No, what?” Frisk asked, confused.

 

“I just remembered,” Chara didn’t really know how they’d forgotten it in the first place, they’d seen the old crow often enough to at least remember his name, “The Core was made by the royal scientist before Alphys, W. D. Gaster.”

 

Frisk still didn’t look terribly thrilled, “What does he have to do with electricity?” they questioned.

 

“He invented it! Or at least he did for the Underground. You see, it ran on thermal energy. The core would transfer the heat from the lava of Hotland into electricity for everyone in the underground to use.” Chara declared proudly, glad that their tutoring from all those poor teachers they’d had over the years hadn’t gone to waste.

 

“That’s… actually kinda cool. So, if some monsters have fire magic, does that mean that others have ice magic? Or earth magic? Or Fire magic?” Frisk began blasting Chara with a torrent of questions, all of which Chara attempted to answer, but one thing was still lurking in the back of their mind. Why did the name W. D. Gaster suddenly pop into their head after all those years of silence? More importantly, why didn’t anyone talk about him?

 

Monsters were the type of people to remember their dead for decades afterward, heck no one could even say the name A… Asriel around Toriel or Asgore without wanting to later jump off a building. But W. D. Gaster, Chara hadn’t heard the name since they were ten, and they couldn’t even remember how he’d died. They couldn’t even remember what he looked like exactly, just a black and white smudge talking with Asgore in hushed tones while Chara sat by the fire coloring with Asriel. It was unsettling, to say the least.


End file.
